Patent ID: 11886762
Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  Y | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A printing control system, comprising:
parent units comprising a first plurality of image forming apparatuses and parent unit controllers; and child units comprising a second plurality of image forming apparatuses and child unit controllers, wherein
the first and the second pluralities of image forming apparatuses are connected to each other through a network, at least one of the parent units is a connectable parent unit, the connectable parent unit is identifiable by a parent unit connection information item stored in the connectable parent unit,
the parent unit controllers control each of the parent units to:
store a job list information item comprising job names of at least one print data item, and obtain the job list information item from another parent unit of the parent units; and
obtain a job list request requesting for transmission of the job list information item from a child unit of the child units, and transmit a job list response including the requested job list information item to the child unit of the child units,

the child unit controllers control each of the child units to:
transmit the job list request to the connectable parent unit; and
obtain the job list response from the parent unit, the parent unit either storing the print data item to be identified with the job name of the print data item included in the job list information item requested by the job list request, or the parent unit not storing the print data item,
the parent unit controllers further control each of the parent units to:
save the at least one print data items in a first memory;
transmit a job list information item to another parent unit, the job list information item including the job names of the at least one print data item saved on the first memory; and
obtain the job list request transmitted from the child unit, the job list request requesting for transmission of the job list information item to the child unit, the job list information item including the job name of the at least one print data items, and

store, on the first memory, the job list information item transmitted from another parent unit, and
the child unit controllers further control each of the child units to store the parent unit connection information item that identifies the connectable parent unit in a second memory.