Job scheduling system for print processing

Claim 2

A job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a job request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, and a job scheduling device which sequentially processes jobs by storing the jobs, received from the terminal equipment through a network, in a queue and sending a job execution section a processing request relating to a document specified by the job stored in the queue, said terminal equipment comprising: attribute information adding means for adding information relating to the number of copies of the job and information relating to a job output result to the job request as job attribute information, and said job scheduling device comprising: attribute information setting means for acquiring attribute information included in the received job and sets the attribute information to information which specifies a job and a document; a queue for storing, as a job, a group of items of the information for specifying a job and a document; and output result control means which, upon reference to the information for specifying a job and a document with respect to the job stored in the queue, controls the processing request issued to the job execution section in such a way that a specified number of copies of the job are only output in a collated manner if collation processing is specified in the information relating to a job output result using the information which specifies a job and a document, or in such a way that a specified number of copies of the job are only output in an uncollated manner if uncollation processing is specified in the information relating to the job output result using the information which specifies a job and a document.

Claim 3

A job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, a job execution section for printing the documents, and a job scheduling device which accepts a document input from the terminal equipment through a network and issues a processing request relating to that document to the job execution section, said terminal equipment comprising: control information specifying means for specifying a processing start wait for a leading document among the plurality of documents, and said job scheduling device comprising: preparation means for preparing information which specifies a received document; queuing means for storing the prepared information which specifies the document by associating the information on a job-by-job basis; control information setting means which, if a processing start wait is specified for the leading document among a plurality of received documents, sets the processing start wait to information for specifying this leading document; and control state setting means which, if the processing start wait is set to information which specifies the leading document of the job stored in said queuing means, renders that job in a processing start wait state, wherein said job scheduling device sequentially retrieves jobs stored in said queuing means when the job execution section becomes enabled to accept processing, issues a processing request for a corresponding document when there is information specifying a document to which a processing request can be issued, and when a job is placed in the processing start wait state, prevents the issue of processing requests with respect to a document for that job and documents for subsequent jobs until that job is released from the processing start wait state by a user's instruction or a timeout.

Claim 4

A job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, a job execution section for printing the documents, and a job scheduling device which accepts a document input from the terminal equipment through a network and issues a processing request relating to that document to the job execution section, said terminal equipment comprising: control information specifying means for specifying a processing completion wait for a leading document among the plurality of documents, and said job scheduling device comprising: preparation means for preparing information which specifies a received document; queuing means for storing the prepared information which specifies the document by associating the information on a job-by-job basis; control information setting means which, if a processing completion wait is specified for the leading document among a plurality of received documents, sets the processing completion wait to information for specifying this leading document; and control state setting means which, if the processing completion wait is set to information which specifies the leading document of the job stored in said queuing means, renders that job in a processing completion wait state, wherein said job scheduling device sequentially retrieves jobs stored in said queuing means when the job execution section becomes enabled to accept processing, issues a processing request for a corresponding document when there is information specifying a document to which a processing request can be issued, and when a job is placed in the processing completion wait state, prevents the issue of processing requests with respect to a document for that job and documents for subsequent jobs until that job is released from the processing completion wait state by a user's instruction or a timeout.

Claim 5

A job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request by handling a plurality of documents as one job, a job execution section for printing the documents, and a job scheduling device which accepts a document input from the terminal equipment through a network and issues a processing request relating to that document to the job execution section, said terminal equipment comprising: control information setting means for specifying a password input wait for a leading document among the plurality of documents, and said job scheduling device comprising: preparation means for preparing information which specifies a received document; queuing means for storing the information which specifies the document by associating the information on a job-by-job basis; control information setting means which, if a password input wait is set for the leading document among a plurality of received documents, sets the password input wait to information which specifies that leading document; and control state setting means which, if the password input wait state is set to information which specifies the leading document of the job stored in the queuing means, renders that job in a password input wait state, wherein said job scheduling device sequentially retrieves jobs stored in said queuing means when the job execution section becomes enabled to accept processing, issues a processing request for a corresponding document when there is information specifying a document to which a processing request can be issued, and when a job is placed in the password input wait state, prevents the issue of processing requests with respect to a document of that job and documents of subsequent jobs until that job is released from the password input wait state by a user's instruction or a timeout.

Claim 6

A job processing system comprising a terminal equipment for issuing a processing request, and a job scheduling device which sequentially processes jobs by storing the jobs received from the terminal equipment in a queue and issuing a processing request, relating to a document specified by the job stored in the queue, to a job execution section, said terminal equipment comprising: attribute information adding means for adding information relating to job wait control and message information relating to the wait control to the job request as attribute information, and said scheduling device comprising: job information preparing means for preparing job information which specifies a received job; attribute information setting means for setting attribute information included in the received job in the job information; a queue for storing the prepared job information in order; control state setting means which, if wait control is set to the job information stored in said queue, renders a job associated with that job information in a wait control state when processing of that job is started or completed; and message information informing means which, when the job enters the wait control state, informs said terminal equipment of message information set with respect to that job.

Claim 7

A print processor which prints a document in response to a job request received through a network, said print processor comprising: job accepting means for accepting the job request; queuing means for storing the accepted jobs in sequential order; output means for printing a document specified by the job stored in said queuing means; converting means for converting the document into a format which said output means can interpret; and conversion control means for causing said converting means to convert a document which needs to be converted when being printed by said output means, wherein said converting means informs said conversion control means that it can carry out conversion when conversion processing becomes available, and wherein said conversion control means retrieves a document in a format which said output means cannot interpret from among the documents specified by the job stored in said queuing means, and causes said converting means to convert the format of that document.

Claim 8

The print processor as defined in claim 7, wherein said job accepting means accepts a job request including information which means that information for specifying a document is transmitted in several divided parts, and information which specifies a document included in the job request, wherein said queuing means comprises a spool queue for temporarily storing information which specifies a job and a document until information for specifying all documents included in the job is completely received, a printer queue corresponding to said output means, and queue managing means for moving information specifying a document and a job which has the complete information for specifying all of the documents from said spool queue to said printer queue, and wherein said conversion control means retrieves documents in a format, which said output means cannot interpret, from said printer queue to said spool queue one after another, and causes said converting means to convert the format of those documents.

Claim 9

A print processor which carries out printing upon receipt of a job processing request, including an instruction for processing print requests for a plurality of documents as one job and scheduling attributes, from a plurality of terminals through a network, said print processor comprising: timer means which, upon receipt of a job processing request from the terminal, checks whether or not a next print document was received within a predetermined period of time by monitoring a series of documents included in the job processing request; scheduling attribute judging means which, upon receipt of the job processing request, judges whether the scheduling attributes are after-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that the execution of a job is started upon receipt of all print documents related to the job or before-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that a job is executed with respect to a received print document every time each print document is received; final document processing means which, when said timer means has judged that the next print document could not be received within a predetermined period of time during the reception of the job processing request, handles a print document which was received immediately before this judgement as a final document of the current job, if the scheduling attributes are the after-complete attributes; and job completion processing means which, when said timer means has judged that the next print document could not be received within a predetermined period of time during the reception of the job processing request, completes the job by handling a print document which was received immediately before the judgement as the final document of the current job, if the scheduling attributes are the before-complete attributes.

Claim 10

The print processor as defined in claim 9, further comprising final document decision means for deciding the completion of the series of print documents upon receipt of the job processing request.

Claim 11

The print processor as defined in claim 10, further comprising printer selecting means which, if the scheduling attributes are the before-complete attributes, selects a printer when said final document judging means judges a received document to be the final print document in the case of the scheduling attributes of the after-complete type, and when said final document processing means deals the print document immediately before the judgement.

Claim 12

A print processing method for use in a print processor in the case where a receiving failure arises during receipt of a job processing request, which includes an instruction for processing print requests for a plurality of documents as one job and scheduling attributes, from a plurality of terminals through a network, said print processing method comprising the steps of: judging whether or not a next print document was received within a predetermined period of time by monitoring the time at which the next print document is received while a series of print documents included in the job processing request from the terminal are received; judging, from the received job processing request, whether the scheduling attributes are after-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that the execution of a received job is started upon receipt of all print documents related to this job or before-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that a job is executed with respect to a received print document every time a print document is received; executing a job by handling a print document received immediately before the judgement of the reception of the next print document as a final print document of this job when the next print document is not received within a predetermined period of time, if the scheduling attributes are the after-complete attributes; and completing the job by dealing a print document received immediately before the judgement of the reception of the next print document as the final document of this job when the next print document is not received within a predetermined period of time, if the scheduling attributes are the before-complete attributes.

Claim 13

A job processing device which sequentially executes jobs for which processing requests were accepted, said job processing device comprising: first queuing means for sequentially storing jobs for which processing requests were accepted; second queuing means for sequentially storing jobs whose processing is to be interrupted from among the jobs stored in said first queuing means; queue control means which moves the job stored in the first queuing means from said first queuing means to said second queuing means in response to a job processing interruption request and moves the jobs stored in said second queuing means from said second queuing means to said first queuing means in response to a job resumption request; and job execution means for sequentially executing the jobs stored in said first queuing means.

Claim 14

The job processing device as defined in claim 13, further comprising job state control means which manages interruption information, representing an interrupted state of a job, as attribute information of the job when the job being executed by said job execution means is interrupted in response to the job processing interruption request, wherein the execution of the job is resumed with reference to the interruption information in response to the job resumption request.

Claim 15

A job scheduling device which sequentially stores jobs, for which processing requests were received from terminals, in a queue and sequentially processes the jobs held in the queue using a job execution section, said job scheduling device comprising: a plurality of queues provided corresponding to states of the jobs; scheduling means for scheduling the jobs using the plurality of queues; and recovery means for recovering previous state of each of the jobs being held in the plurality of queues, at the time of recovery from a failure, if any failure occurred while the jobs are being scheduled by said scheduling means.

Claim 16

A job scheduling device for storing, in a queue, print jobs which include print data and attribute information and for which processing requests were received from terminals, and for sequentially printing the print jobs held in the queue based on the attribute information using a job execution section, said job scheduling device comprising: a plurality of queues provided corresponding to print job states; scheduling means for scheduling the print jobs using the plurality of queues; and attribute modifying means for modifying the attribute information only when a print job can be changed at the time that an instruction for modifying the attribute information of the print job is received, and when the instruction is free from errors.