JPH0744338A - Print processing device/method for computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To integrate a print setting user interface and its print function. CONSTITUTION:A DLL module 201 which secures a print function and a print processing program 202 are incorporated into an operating system 122 independently of an application program 121. The module 201 is called out by the application programs 121a and 121b and receives the print data from these programs. Furthermore the module 201 shows a dialog on a screen to inquire a user about designation of the option information. The option information set on the dialog screen is sent to the program 202 together with the print data, and the final print data including the option information are produced based on the data received by the program 202 and sent to the printer of the output destination.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus and method in a computer system for editing print data according to option information for print setting to create print data corresponding to an output destination printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, the printing function of a computer is supported by an application program.
Therefore, for application programs that require printing, a function to display a screen for inquiring the user to specify option information for print settings, and to create print data corresponding to the output destination printer according to the option information The function to do is built in.

However, the conventional method of providing the printing function in the application program as described above has the following problems. First, the user interface for print processing differs for each application program, and when viewed from the user side, that user interface becomes difficult to use.

In addition, the printing function supported by each application program may differ, which causes a problem that the printing function becomes inconsistent as a whole system.

[0005]

Conventionally, the printing function has been supported by an application program, and when a single system is composed of a plurality of application programs, the user interface for the print setting and the printing function are required. There was a drawback that the uniformity was lost and the operability was lowered.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. The printing function prepared in each application program is made independent as one function, and the printing function is shared by a plurality of application programs. An object of the present invention is to provide a print control apparatus and method that can be used and can realize uniformity in user interface and print function.

[0007]

Means and Actions for Solving the Problems
In a print processing device of a computer system, a system management unit having an operating system located between hardware of the computer system and an application program and managing the operation of the system; A print control unit for providing a print function, the print control unit editing the print data according to the option information for print setting to create print data corresponding to the output destination printer;
Application interface means linked to the application program in response to a call from the application program, for receiving print data from the application program, and displaying an option setting screen for inquiring a user to specify the option information. And a communication unit that links the application interface unit with the print processing unit and delivers print data from the application program and option information specified on the option setting screen to the print processing unit. And

In this print processing apparatus, print control means for providing a print function is provided independently of the application program, and the print control means includes print processing means, application interface means, and
Communication means for communicating between them are included. When a request to print data is issued from an application program, the application program calls the application interface means. The application interface unit is activated in response to a call from the application program, receives print data from the application program, and displays an option setting screen for inquiring the user to specify option information. The print data and the option information set on the option setting screen from the application program are sent to the print processing means via the communication means. The print processing means creates final print data including option information based on the received data and sends it to the output destination printer. Therefore, a printing function independent of the application program is realized, and by using the printing function in common by a plurality of application programs, it is possible to make the user interface and the printing function uniform.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This computer system has a print control mechanism that edits print data created by executing an application program according to an output destination printer or option information specified by a user. Here, the configuration will be described by taking the case where the print control mechanism is realized on a workstation as an example.

That is, the workstation 1 is provided with a system bus 10, a CPU 11, a main memory 12, a printer controller 13, a display controller 14, a keyboard controller 15, and a communication controller 16 as shown in the figure.

The CPU 11 is for controlling the whole system of this workstation, and executes the program stored in the main memory 12. The main memory 12 is for storing a program executed by the CPU 11 and data to be processed, and here, an application program (APL) 121 to be executed is included.
Is stored and the operating system (O
S) 122, printer driver program (PRT driver) 123, and communication driver program 123 are resident.

Application program (APL) 1
Reference numeral 21 denotes a program such as a word processor, a spreadsheet, or a database, which has a function of creating print data. Operating system 122
Is a program located in the middle between the application program 121 and the system hardware to manage the operation of the entire system. As a function for print management, a DLL (Dynamic L
An inking library) module 201 and a print processing program 202 are incorporated.

The DLL module 201 is a function readable by the application program 121 and has two functions, that is, a print setting function and a print function. These functions are dynamically linked to the application program 201 in response to a call from the application program 201.

The print setting function is a user common to a plurality of application programs executed by the CPU 11.
In order to provide the interface, in response to the call from the application program 201, an option setting screen for inquiring the user to specify the following option information for print setting is displayed. <Option information> -Specify output destination printer-Specify page header content and print presence-Specify page footer content and print presence-Page number format and print presence-Page margin (top margin) , Bottom margin, left margin, right margin) ・ Specify the number of copies to print ・ Specify 2-up printing ・ Specify the number of lines per page and the number of digits in one line ・ Specify the content of page title and whether to print The generated option information is sent from the DLL module 201 to the print processing program 202 by interprocess communication.

The print function is a function for creating print data and receiving the print data from the application program 201 in response to a call from the application program 201. The print data is also DLL module by interprocess communication. It is sent from 201 to the print processing program 202.

The print processing program 202 is a program for creating print data corresponding to an output destination printer by performing edit processing including print data conversion on print data according to print setting option information. The print data edited by the print processing program 202 is sent to the printer driver 123. The print processing program 202 also has a print image display control function.

The printer driver 123 is a program for controlling printer output that controls driving of the printer 21 by the printer controller 13, and has a spool mechanism. The communication driver 124 is a program that controls the operation of the communication controller 16 that communicates with the heterogeneous OS workstation 41 and the like via the LAN 30.
When outputting the print data to the printer 42 of the workstation 41, the print data is sent from the print processing program 202 to the communication driver 124.

The printer controller 13 controls the printing operation of the printer 21 under the control of the printer driver 123. The display controller 14 controls the display of the display monitor 23. At the time of print setting, an option information setting screen sent from the DLL module 201 is displayed. Keyboard controller 15
Performs key input control of the keyboard 22. The communication controller 16 executes communication with the heterogeneous OS workstation 41 and the like via the LAN 30.

The heterogeneous OS workstation 41 is a heterogeneous workstation whose operation is managed by an operating system of a different type from the operating system 122, and a printer driver program for the printer 42 is normally incorporated in the operating system. Has been. The printer driver program outputs to the printer 42 the print data edited by the application program executed on the heterogeneous OS workstation 41 or the print data transferred from the workstation 1 via the LAN 30.

In FIG. 2, only the print processing function realized on the workstation 1 of FIG. 1 is extracted and shown. Application programs 121a and 121b
Creates print data and makes a DLL call 101 to the DLL module 201 in the same procedure as a normal function call. The DLL module 201 has the print setting function and the print function as described above, and when the print setting function is called, it displays the screen (dialog) including the op information for the print setting. When the print function is called, the print data is received from the application program and is sent to the print processing program 202 using the interprocess communication 102 together with the option information set by the user. The print processing program 202 edits the print data according to the output destination printer (21 or 42) to generate final print data, adds necessary option information to the output destination printer, and outputs it.

As described above, this print function is provided with the DLL module 201 that can be called by the application programs 121a and 121b and the print processing program 202 that communicates with the DLL module 201 separately from the application program. Is realized by.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, a series of operations from setting of option information to execution of print processing will be described. First, the option information setting operation will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

As shown in the figure, a "print setting" menu and a "print" menu are displayed on the screen of the display 23 provided by the application program 121.
When printing the print data created by, the user first selects the "print setting" menu using the keyboard 22 (S11). When the "Print Settings" menu is selected, the application program 12
1 calls the print setting function of the DLL module 201 (step S12).

The print setting function uses the screen interface function to display a dialog box for setting option information as a window on the application screen as shown in the figure, and inquires the user about the option information (step S13). . Next, the dialog box is used to specify the option information by the user, specify the output destination printer, specify the page header contents and whether to print, specify the page footer contents and whether to print, and page number. Format and whether to print, page margins (top margin, bottom margin, left margin, right margin)
Is specified, the number of prints is specified, 2-up printing is specified, the number of lines per page, the number of digits in one line, the content of the page title and the presence or absence of printing are specified.
The control returns from the LL module 201 to the application program 121 (step S14).

Next, referring to the flow chart of FIG.
The print processing operation will be described. When the option information is set by the "print setting" menu, the "print" menu is selected by the user this time (S21). "printing"
When the menu is selected, the application program 121 creates print data and then the DLL module 2
The print function 01 is called and the print data is delivered (step S22).

Next, the print data and the option information are passed from the DLL module 201 to the print processing program 202 by interprocess communication (step S2).
3). The print processing program 202 performs necessary processing such as edit of print data and data conversion corresponding to an output destination printer based on the option information, and then performs a printer output mechanism including the printer driver 123 (different OS workstation 41 and The communication is output to a communication control mechanism including the communication driver 124 (step S24). Further, the print processing program 202 can also display a print image on the screen by using the screen interface before outputting.

As described above, in this embodiment, the DLL module 201 that provides the print function and the print processing program 202 are incorporated in the operating system 122 independently of the application program 121. When a request to print data is issued, the DLL module 201 is called by the application program. The DLL module 201 receives print data from the application program and
Display a dialog box to ask the user to specify option information. The print data from the application program 121 and the option information set on the dialog screen are sent to the print processing program 202 via interprocess communication. The print processing program 202 creates final print data including option information based on the received data and sends it to the output destination printer. Therefore, a printing function independent of the application program is realized, and by using the printing function in common by a plurality of application programs, it is possible to make the user interface and the printing function uniform.

Further, regarding the output to the printer 42 on the heterogeneous OS workstation 41 via the network, the difference in the output method can be absorbed by the DLL module 201 and the print processing program 202, so that different types of OS and A printer is available.

Therefore, particularly in a network system to which various different types of workstations, personal computers, etc. are connected, it is possible to unify the printing functions regardless of the difference in application and OS, and to effectively use printer resources. It becomes possible.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, the print function prepared in each application program is made independent as one function, so that the print function can be shared by a plurality of application programs. It becomes possible to use. Therefore, it is possible to realize uniformity in the user interface and the print function.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a computer system including a print control mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram conceptually showing an operating environment of a print control mechanism provided in the system of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an option information setting operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a print processing operation according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... work station, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... main memory, 121 ... application program 21,
42 ... Printer, 122 ... Operating system,
201 ... DLL module, 202 ... Print processing program.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A print control apparatus for a computer system, comprising: a system management unit having an operating system located between hardware of the computer system and an application program for managing the operation of the system; A print control means for providing a print function to the application program, the print control means editing print data according to option information for print setting to create print data corresponding to an output destination printer. A processing unit and, in response to a call from the application program, are linked to the application program and inquire of the user about reception of print data from the application program and designation of the option information. An application interface unit for displaying an option setting screen for displaying the print data from the application program and the option information specified on the option setting screen, by linking the application interface unit with the print processing unit. A print processing apparatus, comprising: a communication unit that delivers the print processing unit. 2. In a print processing method of a computer system, a print control program incorporated in an operating system is executed in response to a call from an application program, and by executing this print control program, optional information for print settings is set. Display the option setting screen for inquiring the user of the specification of, and edit the print data transferred from the application program according to the option information specified on the option setting screen to obtain the print data corresponding to the output destination printer. A print processing method characterized by creating.