Patent ID: 8392523
Filing Date: 2013-03-05
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of programs of which an interface is open to public so that an application created according to said interface is executable; a management table indicating a mount condition of a group of application program interfaces mounted in the image forming apparatus; a processor configured to specify the mount condition of the group of application program interfaces mounted in the image forming apparatus by referring to the management table to display information to a user of the image forming apparatus indicating an availability of the group of application program interfaces so that when at least one application program interface, which is not mounted in the image forming apparatus, exists in a group of application program interfaces constituting the application, application is omitted from the information displayed to the user of the image forming apparatus, and when all of the group of application program interfaces constituting the application are mounted in the image forming apparatus, the application is displayed to the user of the image forming apparatus; and a virtual application service configured to receive the request from the application and determine the available group of application program interfaces by determining a model name of the image forming apparatus and accessing the management table that includes a list of available application program interfaces corresponding to each of a plurality of model names.