Patent ID: 6327045
Filing Date: 2001-12-04
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
In a network client having an operating system residing in a network having a plurality of printers, each printer capable of performing a print job and at least one printer being assigned a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address, a method for performing the print job comprising the steps of:receiving a request to have one of the printers perform the print job;examining the address of the requested printer; anddetermining if the address of the requested printer is an assigned URL address, and if the address of the requested printer is determined to be an assigned URL address, performing the further steps of:placing data pertaining to the print job into a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) formatted message;submitting the HTTP formatted message via a network communications link to a network server which extracts the data and uses the URL to further route the data to the printer specified by the URL which, in turn, utilizes the data to perform the requested print job; andif the address of the requested printer is determined not to be an assigned URL address, performing the further step of executing the print job according to the conventions supported by the operating system residing on the network client.