JPH09231025A - Network management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To print only the print data that are not printed by a prescribed control command among those print data which are not printed by a printer having a fault. SOLUTION: When a fault occurs in a printer 16 which is carrying out the print processing based on an input print job, the fault occurrence notification information is inputted to a print server 14 from a printer 18. The server 14 produces a substitute print job from the print data which are not printed by the faulty printer 16 and the control code of the print data based on the fault occurrence notification information. Then the server 14 outputs the substitute print job to the substitute printer 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network management device, and more particularly, to a plurality of print jobs each composed of print data for at least one page and a control code for the print data via a network. The present invention relates to a network management device that outputs to at least one of a plurality of printing devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it has been widely practiced to manage a plurality of printing devices connected to a network by a print server that stores and manages print jobs input from a client (workstation).

In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-156526, when a print job composed of print data of a plurality of pages and a control code of the print data is input from any of the clients connected to the network, The stored print job is temporarily stored in the hard disk, and if the printing device connected to the network is in the standby state, the print job is output to the printing device and the network is transmitted from any one of the plurality of clients connected to the network. When a control command including a command for fetching print data from the optical disc connected to the optical disc is input, the print data is fetched from the optical disc according to the input command, and the print data fetched and the control command for the print data are configured. Stored print jobs to the hard disk and then store them in the network. If continued printing device is a standby state, a printer controller for outputting a print job to the printing device (print server) is described.

By the way, when a failure such as a paper jam, a paper shortage, or a toner shortage that cannot continue printing occurs in the printing apparatus, the printing apparatus remains stopped until the failure is manually removed. Also,
Since the printing device is connected to the network, there is not always an operator near the printing device.

Therefore, when the above-mentioned failure occurs in the printing apparatus, the printer control apparatus receives a large number of print jobs without noticing that the failure occurs in the printing apparatus, and a large number of input print jobs. Will be stored in the hard disk and a large number of print jobs will be delayed.

In order to avoid such a situation, when a failure occurs, pre-stored identification data (name) of this possible proxy printing apparatus that is connected to the network and prints on behalf of the failed printing apparatus There has been proposed a printing apparatus that takes in a print job and outputs the print job after occurrence of a failure to a proxy printing apparatus corresponding to the fetched print name (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-024099).

[0007]

However, for example, in a plurality of print jobs represented by ESC / P, only the control code different from the control code of the print data of the first page and the printing controlled by the different control code are performed. When at least one print job composed of data and data is included, the above-mentioned printing apparatus only transfers the print job after the occurrence of the failure to another printing apparatus. Therefore, the print job before the occurrence of the failure occurs. No control code is input, and the proxy printing apparatus prints the print data that is input according to the control code (font, paper size, paper orientation, etc.) used before the proxy printing. I cannot print correctly.

Further, in the case where one print job is composed of print data of a plurality of pages and control codes of the print data, if a failure occurs in the middle of the plurality of pages, the same print job is output again. The already printed page is double printed.

Furthermore, since nothing is notified to the client who has requested the printing of the print job, it is not possible to grasp which proxy printing device has printed the print data after the failure.

The present invention has been made in view of the above facts, and print data that has not been printed by a printing device that has a failure is printed according to a control command that was originally scheduled. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a network management device capable of grasping which printing device has printed print data.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 provides a plurality of print jobs, each of which is composed of at least one page of print data and a control code of the print data, via a network. A network management device for outputting to at least one of a plurality of printing devices,
A print completion page number detecting means for detecting a faulty printing device in which a fault in which the printing process based on the print job cannot be continued and for detecting the number of print completed pages printed by the detected faulty printing device And a proxy print job composed of print data not printed by the faulty printing device and a control code of the print data based on the number of print completed pages detected by the print completed page number detecting unit Output means for outputting to at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the generating printing device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the proxy print job includes only the control code different from the control code of the print data of the first page in the plurality of print jobs and the different control code. When at least one print job composed of controlled print data is included, it is created based on the control code of the print data printed by the faulty printing device and printed by the faulty printing device. It is characterized in that it is composed of a control code for printing the unprinted print data according to the initially planned control code and print data not printed by the faulty printing device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, each of the plurality of print jobs includes one page of print data and a control code for the one page of print data. In the case where the print data is composed of, the print data not printed by the faulty printing device and the control code of the print data are included.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, output is possible to at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device. Data amount and at least one of the printable data amount of at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device, and the output means includes the data detected by the detection device. It is characterized in that the proxy print job is output to the printing apparatus having the largest amount.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the printing apparatus executes print processing based on the plurality of print jobs or the substitute print job. A print processing completion detecting unit that detects that the print processing is completed; and a display unit that displays the printing device that the print processing completion detecting unit detects that the print processing is completed. To do.

Here, the network management apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention prints a plurality of print jobs, each of which is composed of at least one page of print data and a control code of the print data, through a network. Output to at least one of the devices.

Therefore, in the printing apparatus that has input the print job, the print processing is executed based on the input print job.

However, when the printing apparatus that has executed the printing process based on the print job in this way, for example, runs out of paper,
A failure may occur in which the printing process such as paper clogging cannot be continued. In this case, the print completion page number detecting means is
A faulty printing device in which a fault that cannot continue execution of print processing based on a print job has occurred is detected, and the number of print completed pages printed by the detected faulty printing device is also detected.

Here, the print completion page number detecting means receives the data indicating that the fault has occurred from the faulty printing device in which the fault in which the printing process based on the print job cannot be continued continues to occur. By doing so, the faulty printing device may be detected. In this case, the print completion page number detecting means inquires of the printing apparatus that is executing the print processing based on the print job whether or not the failure has occurred, and data indicating that the failure has occurred is input. By doing so, the faulty printing device may be detected. Further, the data indicating the state of whether or not a failure has occurred in the printing apparatus that is executing the print processing based on the print job is held, and the print completion page number detecting means reads the data indicating the state. By doing so, the faulty printing device may be detected.

Further, the print completion page number detecting means may detect the print completion page number by inputting data representing the print completion page number from the faulty printing device. In addition, in addition, the faulty printing device is made to hold the data representing the number of print completed pages, and the print completed page number detecting means detects the number of print completed pages by reading the data representing the number of print completed pages. You may do it.

Then, the output means is a proxy composed of print data not printed by the faulty printing device and a control code of the print data based on the number of print completed pages detected by the number of print completed pages detecting means. The print job is output to at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device.

Here, the plurality of types of print jobs include, for example, only the control code different from the control code of the print data of the first page and the print data controlled by the different control code in the plurality of print jobs. At least one print job may be included. In this case, the substitute print job is initially print data created based on the control code of the print data printed by the faulty printing device and not printed by the faulty printing device. It may be composed of a control code to be printed according to a scheduled control code and print data not printed by the faulty printing device.

The types of print jobs are:
Each of the plurality of print jobs may include print data for one page and a control code for the print data for the one page. In this case, the proxy print job may be composed of print data not printed by the faulty printing device and a control code of the print data, as in the third aspect of the invention.

As described above, the proxy print job composed of the print data not printed by the faulty printing device and the control code of the print data based on the detected number of pages for which printing has been completed is processed by a printing device other than the faulty printing device. Since the data is output to at least one of the plurality of printing devices, the printing device to which the proxy print job is input can print the print data that was not printed by the faulty printing device according to the control code of the print data.

Further, since the proxy print job is composed of the print data that was not printed by the faulty printing device and the control code of the print data, the print data that has already been printed may be printed twice. Absent.

Next, the detecting means according to the invention of claim 4 can output the amount of data that can be output to at least one of the plurality of printing apparatuses other than the faulty printing apparatus and the plurality of printing apparatuses other than the faulty printing apparatus. At least one of the at least one printable data amount of the printing device is detected.

Here, the amount of data that can be output will be described.
The amount of data that can be output is the amount of data that can store a print job in at least one printing device of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device. That is, for example, when the printing apparatus is a facsimile apparatus or a printer, the spool capacity is large if the number of print jobs that have already been input or received and accepted is large, and the printing apparatus newly inputs and stores the spool job. Has a small amount of data, while
If the number of print jobs that have already been input or received and accepted is small, the spool capacity is small, and the amount of data to be newly input and stored by the printing apparatus is large. In this way, the amount of data that can be newly stored for print processing is the amount of data that can be output. Therefore, if the amount of data that can be output is large, the number of jobs received by the printing apparatus is small, and the proxy printing process can be completed in a short time.

Next, the printable data amount will be described. The printable data amount is a data amount corresponding to the number of pages that can be printed on the resource of at least one printing device of a plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device. That is,
For example, it is the data amount corresponding to the number of sheets that can be printed by the printing device, which is determined from the remaining number of sheets, the toner capacity, the drum life, and the like. As described above, if the printable data amount is large, the number of pages that can be printed on the resource of the printing device is large, and thus the proxy print job is processed more reliably by the printing device than by other printing devices. Will be.

Therefore, the output means outputs the substitute print job to the printing device having the largest print data amount detected by the detection means.

Thus, the amount of data that can be output to at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device and the printable data of at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device. Since the proxy print job is output to the printing device having the largest amount of at least one of the amounts, the printing process is performed quickly and more reliably.

The print processing completion detecting means according to the fifth aspect of the present invention detects that the print processing is completed by the printing apparatus that has executed the print processing based on a plurality of print jobs or proxy print jobs.

Then, the display means displays the printing device for which the completion of the print processing is detected by the print processing completion detecting means.

As described above, the proxy print job composed of the print data not printed by the faulty printing device and the control code of the print data based on the detected number of pages for which printing has been completed is processed by a printer other than the faulty printing device. Since the data is output to at least one of the plurality of printing devices, the printing device to which the proxy print job is input can print the print data that was not printed by the faulty printing device according to the control code of the print data.

[0034]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

A network system is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, in the network system, a client 12, a print server 14, and a plurality of printing devices 16 are connected to each other via a network 20. Note that, of the plurality of printing devices, a printing device that substitutes and continues the printing process of the printing device in which a failure has occurred as described later is referred to as a proxy printing device 18.

The print server 14 is connected to the network 20.
An input interface 14N ₁ connected to the input interface 14N ₂ , an input buffer 14N ₂ connected to the input interface 14N ₁ ,
It has a CPU 14N ₃ connected to the input buffer 14N ₂ . Further, the print server 14 has a CPU 14N
Print job spool 14N ₄ , print job queue 14N ₅ , and proxy printing apparatus information table 14 that are respectively connected to ₃
It has N ₆ . Furthermore, the print server 14 uses the CP
It comprises an output buffer 14N ₇ connected to U14N ₃ , an output buffer 14N ₇ and an output interface 14N ₈ connected to the network 20.

Further, the printing device 16 is a network 20.
An input interface 16N ₁ connected to the input interface 16N ₂ , an input buffer 16N ₂ connected to the input interface 16N ₁ ,
It has a CPU 16N ₃ connected to the input buffer 16N ₂ . The printing apparatus 16 includes a print completion page counter 16N ₆ which is connected to the printing unit 16N _5, CPU16N ₃ which is connected via the output page buffer 16N ₄ to CPU16N _3. Further, the printing device 16
Is the output buffer 16 connected to the CPU 16N _3.
N ₇ , an output buffer 16N ₇ and an output interface 16N ₈ connected to the network 20.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described. First, when the print job from the client 12 shown in FIG. 1 is printed by the printing device 16, the print job is transferred from the client 12 to the print server 14 via the network 20.

Here, as shown in FIG. 9, the print job includes print data (image data) P _{1 to} P ₃ and print data P _{1 to} P ₃ up to three pages including the first page (one page). control code C ₀ Metropolitan print job J ₁ composed of control code C ₀ and control codes only code differ only character spacing and different character spacing C ₁ control code other than the control code C ₁ and character spacing of Toko C ₀ A print job J ₂ composed of print data P _{4 of} four pages controlled by the control code C _{2, which is} a code only for returning the character spacing to the character spacing of the control code C ₀ , and the control code C ₂ and the character Unlike the print job J _3, and the control code C ₀ and a character spacing and character size a control code C ₀ print data P ₅ 5,6 page controlled by, P ₆ Metropolitan non intervals and different character spacing And letter rhino A control code C ₃ only code's, page 7 to 9 which is controlled by this control code C ₃ and character spacing and character control code C ₀ in other sizes
The print job J ₄ includes print data P _{7 to} P _{9 for} pages.

The print server 14 stores the transferred print job in the input buffer 14N ₂ via the input interface 14N ₁ and, at the same time, creates it as a file in the print job spool 14N ₄ by the CPU 14N ₃ .

Further, the job management information of the print job generated in the print job spool 14N ₄ is registered in the print job queue 14N ₅₁ corresponding to the printing device 16. As the job management information, as shown in FIG. 8, the pointer of the next job management information, the client identifier, the print job name, the data size, the print job storage position in the print job spool 14N ₄ , the print job status (print Waiting, printing,
Transferring and holding) flag, print job spool 14
It consists of N ₄ registration time and print data format.

Thereafter, the print server 14 determines whether or not the printing device 16 is ready to accept a print job by outputting the output interface 14N ₈ and the input interface 14N.
₁ (output interface 16N ₁ , input interface 16N ₈ ) to check and confirm. Printer 1
6 is ready to receive the print job, the print jobs stored in the print job spool 14N ₄ are output to the output interface 14N ₈ via the output buffer 14N _7.
Then, the data is transferred to the printing device 16.

When the printing device 16 prints a print job, the control routine shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is executed.

That is, when the power is turned on, this routine is executed, and in step 80, initial setting processing as a printing apparatus is performed, and a print job can be input (received). In step 82, it is determined whether or not a print job has been input. If a print job has been input, step 84
Then, it is determined whether or not the input of the print job is completed, and after the input of the print job is completed, the image data for one page is generated in the output page buffer 16N ₄ in step 86, and in step 88, The image data for one page generated in the output page buffer 16N ₄ is printed by the printing unit 16N ₅ .

In step 90, it is judged whether or not the printing of the image data for one page is completed. If the printing is not completed, in step 100, it is judged whether or not a failure occurs. If there is no failure, step 9
Returning to 0, it is again judged whether or not the printing of the image data for one page is completed. When one page has been printed,
In step 92, the print completed page counter 16N ₆ is updated.

In step 94, it is judged whether or not printing of all pages of the print job is completed based on the counter value of the print completed page counter 16N ₆ , and if printing of the print job is not completed, Returning to step 86, the above processing (steps 86 to 94) is executed to print all pages of the print job.

The above processing (step 86 to step 94)
If there is no particular failure, the determination in step 94 is affirmative, the print completion notification information is output in step 96 to notify the print completion to the print server 14, and the print completion page counter is displayed in step 98. 16N ₆
Is cleared to zero (reset), the process returns to step 82, and the above processing is executed.

Here, the print completion notification information is as shown in FIG.
The contents are as shown in. That is, the print completion notification information is
It is composed of an identifier of the print processing executed based on the print job, a print completion code, an output tray number, and a print job name.

On the other hand, the print server 14 is replaced by the printing device 16
When the print completion notification information is received from, the control routine shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 is interrupted and executed.

In step 52, the print job for which printing has been completed is deleted from the print job spool 14N ₄ , and step 5
In step 4, the management information (job management information) of the print job for which printing is completed is also deleted from the print job queue 14N ₅₁ . The client identifier is temporarily stored for the next step 56.

Then, in step 56, referring to the client identifier, the printing apparatus name and the output tray number, etc., which have been printed, are sent to the client 12 which has transferred the print job to the print server 14 based on the print completion notification information. Notice.

Then, the client 12 displays the name of the printing device on which the printing process has been executed, the output tray number, and the like. Therefore, it is possible to grasp which tray of which printing device the print job was printed out.

By the way, if a trouble such as a paper jam, a paper shortage, or a toner shortage occurs during the printing process (during execution of steps 82 to 94 (see FIG. 2)), the determination in step 100 becomes a positive determination. Step 102
Then, wait for a fixed time, and in step 104, it is confirmed whether the fault is removed. If the obstacle is removed, the process returns to step 90.

On the other hand, if the fault has not been removed, the fault occurrence is notified to the print server 14 by outputting fault occurrence notice information in step 106.

The fault occurrence notification information has the contents shown in FIG. That is, the identifier of the own printing device in which the fault has occurred, the fault occurrence code, the fault content, the print job name,
And a print completion page.

In step 108, wait until the fault is removed, and if the fault is removed, step 110.
Then, the print completion page counter 16N _{6 is set} to zero, the process returns to step 82, and the above-described processing (steps 82 to 110) is executed.

Here, the print server 14 is the printing device 1
When the failure occurrence notification information is input from 6, the control routine shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is interrupted and executed.

In step 62, it is confirmed whether or not the identification information of the proxy printing device 18 which substitutes for the printing device 16 and continues the printing process is registered in the proxy printing device information table 14N ₆ . The proxy printing device information table 14N
_As shown in FIG. 7, ₆ includes an identifier of the printing apparatus, an identifier of the proxy printing apparatus of the printing apparatus, and a network address of the proxy printing apparatus.

Proxy printing device 1 for printing on behalf of the printing device 16 to continue printing processing on behalf of the printing device information table 14N ₆
If the identification information of No. 8 is not registered, the proxy printing cannot be performed. Therefore, in step 78, the print job queue 14N for the printing apparatus 16 until the failure of the printing apparatus 16 is removed.
₅₁ is temporarily disabled, and the use of the printing device 16 is prohibited.

On the other hand, if the identification information of the proxy printing device 18 is registered in the proxy printing device information table 14N ₆ , then in step 64, based on the failure occurrence notification information input,
A file in which the control code from the head of the print job registered in the print job spool 14N ₄ to the page where printing is completed is extracted, and in step 66, the data after the page where printing is completed follows the extracted control code. To generate. That is, a proxy print job is created that is composed of print data that was not printed by the printing device 16 in which the failure has occurred, and control codes for printing the print data as originally scheduled.

Here, a method of generating a proxy print job will be described. For example, it is assumed that the above-mentioned trouble occurs when the print data P ₅ of 5 pages in the print job J ₃ among the print jobs J _{1 to} J ₄ shown in FIG. 9 is printed. In this case, as described above, in step 64, the control codes C ₀ to C _{0
Since 2} is extracted, the extracted control codes C _{0 to} C
Hold ₂ in order so that they overlap in the same area. As a result, of the control codes C ₀ , the control codes other than the character spacing remain, and the character spacing is such that the character spacing 1 of the control code C _{0 and} the character spacing 2 of the control code C ₁ overlap (instead of the character spacing 1, Interval 2 is retained), then control code C
The character interval ₁ of the control code C ₂ overlaps the character interval 2 of 1 (the character interval 1 is retained instead of the character interval 2). The control code held in this way (composed of the control code other than the character spacing in the control code C ₀ and the character spacing 1 of the control code C ₂ ) and the print data P _{6 of} page ₆ are configured. A new print job J ₃ ′ is generated, and a new file is generated by the print job J ₃ ′ and the print job J ₄ .

In step 68, the generated file (substitute print job) is registered in the print job spool 14N _4, and the management information of the generated file (substitute print job) is registered in the print job queue 14N ₅₂ .

In step 70, the print job of the printing device 16 is deleted from the print job spool 14N ₄ , and in step 72, the job management information is deleted from the print job queue 14N ₅₁ for the printing device 16.

In step 74, it is confirmed whether there is job management information registered in the print job queue 14N ₅₁ for the printing device 16, and the print job queue 14 for the printing device 16 is checked.
If there is job management information registered in N ₅₁ , in step 76, all the job management information registered in the print job queue 14N ₅₁ is moved to the print job queue 14N ₅₂ , and the process proceeds to step 78. In step 78, the print job queue for the printing device 16 is temporarily disabled.

Thereafter, the print server 14 takes out each print job from the print job spool 14N ₄ according to the job management information registered in the print job queue 14N ₅₂ , and transfers it to the proxy printing device 18. As a result, the proxy printing apparatus 18 prints the print data that was not printed by the printing apparatus according to the initially scheduled control code.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the control code of the print data printed by the printing device in which the failure has occurred is extracted, and the print data that has not been printed in the printing in which the failure has occurred is initially scheduled. As described above, since the print job (the proxy print job) including the control code to be printed and the print data that is not printed is created and the created print job is output to the proxy printing apparatus, It is possible to cause the proxy printing device to print the print data that was not printed by the printing device in which the failure has occurred as originally scheduled. Therefore, the result intended by the print requester can be guaranteed by the proxy printing apparatus.

Further, since the proxy print job is composed of the print data that was not printed by the printing in which the failure occurred and this control code, the print data printed by the printing apparatus in which the failure occurred is the proxy printing apparatus. Will not be printed twice.

Furthermore, for the client who requested printing,
Since you can also notify the name of the printing device that performed proxy printing,
It is possible to grasp the printing device that has printed out.

Since the job waiting to be printed by the faulty printer is also moved to the print queue (print job queue) of the proxy printer, the print job is not delayed.

In the embodiment described above, the print job includes at least one print job including only the control code different from the control code of the print data of the first page and the print data controlled by the different control code. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and Postscript
As shown in FIG. 5, each of the plurality of print jobs can be applied to the case where each print job includes print data for one page and a control code for the print data for the one page. In this case, the proxy print job may be configured to include print data that was not printed by the printing device in which the failure has occurred and a control code for the print data.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the proxy printing apparatus is the printing apparatus corresponding to the identification information stored in the proxy printing apparatus information table 14N ₆ , but the present invention is not limited to this. The proxy printing device information table is not used, and the proxy printing device is determined by using the means for calculating the printing device with the least load or the printing device that has the least load from the print job queues other than the faulty printing device. You may do it. As a result, the proxy printing process is completed in a short time.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the fault occurrence printing device and the number of pages completed for printing are detected by inputting the fault occurrence notification information from the fault occurrence printing device. The present invention is not limited to this, and the data representing the status is retained so as to hold the data representing the status of whether or not a failure has occurred in the printing apparatus executing the print processing based on the print job. The faulty printing device is detected by reading out the faulty printing device, and the faulty printing device holds data indicating the number of print completed pages, and the data indicating the number of print completed pages is read to read the print completed page. The number may be detected.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the print job is output to one printing device and the proxy printing device is set to one.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the print job or the proxy print job may be distributed and output to a plurality of printing apparatuses. In this case, print jobs or proxy print jobs may be distributed and output in proportion to the print processing speeds of a plurality of printing apparatuses.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the network management device is applied to the print server and the display means of the present invention is applied to the client has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. Instead, the network management device may be applied to the client.

Each of the printing apparatuses of the above-described embodiments is at least one of a printer, a facsimile machine, and a multifunction machine having the functions of both a printer and a facsimile machine, or a combination thereof.

[0076]

As described above, according to the present invention, a proxy print job composed of print data not printed by the faulty printing device and a control code of the print data based on the detected number of print completed pages. Is output to at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device, so that in the printing device to which the substitute print job has been input, the print data that was not printed by the faulty printing device is printed according to the control code of the print data It has the effect of being able to print.

The present invention is also capable of outputting to at least one of a plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device and at least one printable data amount of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device. Since the substitute print job is output to the most frequently used printing apparatus, there is an effect that the printing process is performed quickly and surely.

Further, according to the present invention, when a printing apparatus that has executed a printing process based on a plurality of print jobs or proxy printing jobs has completed the printing process, the printing device that has completed the printing process is displayed. This has an effect that it is possible to know whether the printing process based on a plurality of print jobs or proxy print jobs has been executed by the apparatus.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network system.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a print processing routine of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an interrupt control routine of a print server which is executed by interruption when print completion notification information is input.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an interrupt control routine of a print server which is executed by interruption when failure notification information is input.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of fault notification information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of print completion notification information.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a proxy printing device information table.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a job management information table in a print job queue.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of a print job.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 client (workstation) 14 print server 14N ₁ input interface 14N ₂ input buffer 14N ₃ CPU 14N ₄ print job spool 14N ₅ print job queue 14N ₆ proxy printing device information table 14N ₇ output buffer 14N ₈ output interface 16 printing device 16N ₁ input interface 16N ₂ input buffer 16N ₃ CPU 16N ₄ output page buffer 16N ₅ printing unit 16N ₆ print completed page counter 16N ₇ output buffer 16N ₈ output interface 18 proxy printing device

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A network management device for outputting a plurality of print jobs each composed of print data for at least one page and a control code for the print data to at least one of the plurality of printing devices via a network. The number of print completed pages for detecting the faulty printing device in which a fault that cannot continue the execution of the print processing based on the print job and the number of print completed pages printed by the detected faulty printing device are detected. And a proxy print job composed of print data not printed by the faulty printing device and a control code of the print data based on the number of print completed pages detected by the print completed page number detection unit. A network management device comprising: an output unit that outputs to at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device. . 2. The proxy print job includes at least one print job including only a control code different from the control code of the print data of the first page and print data controlled by the different control code in the plurality of print jobs. When the job is included, print data created based on the control code of the print data printed by the faulty printing device and not printed by the faulty printing device is printed according to the originally planned control code. 2. The network management device according to claim 1, wherein the network management device comprises a control code for saving and print data not printed by the faulty printing device. 3. The substitute print job, if each of the plurality of print jobs includes print data for one page and a control code for the print data for the one page, the faulty print job 2. The network management device according to claim 1, wherein the network management device comprises print data not printed by the device and a control code of the print data. 4. An amount of data that can be output to at least one of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device and at least one printable data of the plurality of printing devices other than the faulty printing device. The output device further includes a detection unit that detects at least one of the amounts, and the output unit outputs the proxy print job to a printing apparatus that has the largest amount of data detected by the detection unit. The network management device according to claim 3. 5. A print processing completion detecting unit that detects completion of the print processing in a printing apparatus that has executed the print processing based on the plurality of print jobs or the substitute print job, and prints by the print processing completion detecting unit. The network management device according to claim 1, further comprising: a display unit that displays a printing device that has been detected to have completed processing.