Patent ID: 7370090
Filing Date: 2008-05-06
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A print portal system intermediating between a client and multiple printing apparatuses so as to execute a printing operation of contents data provided by a content provider, wherein the client, the multiple printing apparatuses and the content provider are connected to a network, the print portal system comprising: an upper-layer portal server that: receives a print job from the client via the network, the print job including address information for specifying an address of the contents data on the network, and output resource information for specifying the printing apparatus as an output resource; and fetches the contents data from the content provider via the network based on the received address information; and multiple lower-layer portal servers that: communicate directly with at least one of the multiple printing apparatuses; and receive the fetched contents data and the output resource information from the upper-layer portal server and transfer the received fetched contents data to the printing apparatus specified by the received output resource information when the printing apparatus specified by the received output resource information is the printing apparatus communicating directly with the lower-layer portal server, wherein the upper-layer portal server further comprises: a restriction database module for storing restriction information for restricting a transfer of the fetched contents data to the lower-layer portal server according to the relation between the multiple printing apparatuses and at least one of the client and the contents data; a determination module that determines, based on the stored restriction information and when the print job is received from the client, whether or not the transfer of the fetched contents data and the output resource information to the lower-layer portal server is to be executed; a change request module that requests the client to change the output resource information when the determination module determines that the transfer of the fetched contents data and the output resource information to the lower-layer portal server is not to be executed; an upper-layer portal module that transfers the fetched contents data and the output resource information to the lower-layer portal server when the determination module determines that the transfer of the fetched contents data to the lower-layer portal server is to be executed; and a restriction customization module that accepts registration of the restriction information to the restriction database module from at least one of the client, the content provider and the multiple printing apparatuses.