Abstract:
An information processing method for providing a communication terminal with a service. When editing in a lump of a plurality of held data to which the services are to be applied is received an instruction from the communication terminal, data capable of undergoing the accepted editing is automatically selected from the held data and the selected data is edited. With regard to data automatically judged to be incapable of undergoing the accepted editing, information that reports exclusion of this data from editing is transmitted to the communication terminal and is displayed thereby. That is, when plural items of held data are edited simultaneously, data not suited to this editing is excluded automatically, thereby enhancing user convenience in terms of operation. In addition, the fact that data not suited to editing has not been edited is clearly indicated to the user to prevent miss-recognition by the user.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     This information relates to an information processing system, apparatus and method for holding electronic information, which is possessed by a user, in a server connected using a communication environment such as the Internet, and supplying the held electronic information to the user or to other users, a storage medium on which a program that implements the method is stored in a manner readable by the information processing apparatus, and the program per se.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     As background, a network photo service is available as one type of service for providing information with communication via a network. This service keeps image data, which a user has captured by an image input device, in a storage area of a network server and enables the user to view the image data when desired. The provider that makes this network photo service available will be referred to as a “photo site” below. A plurality of items of image data stored at the photo site are collected together and held in a unit referred to as an album. There are also cases where it is possible to retain the image data in the album in both still- and moving-image formats.  
         [0003]     There are instances where a user wishes to edit a plurality of images collectively at the same time in an album having a mixture of image data in both the still- and moving-image formats.  
         [0004]     Editing such as rotation is suited to still-image data but is not suited to moving-image data. Hence there are occasions where it desired that such editing not be applied to moving-image data. In such cases the prior-art practice when rotation-type editing is to be performed requires the user to select only the still-image data from the album and then specify the editing thereof. This is a time-consuming task. Further, if moving-image data is accidentally selected and specified for this editing together with still-image data, then error processing will be executed on the grounds that the data includes moving-image data not suited to editing and therefore no data, including the still-image data, will be edited.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing system, apparatus, and method which, when a plurality of items of held data are to be edited simultaneously, automatically exclude data not suited to such editing, thereby enhancing user convenience in terms of operation, and clearly indicate to the user the fact that data not suited to editing has not been edited, and to further provide a storage medium on which a program for implementing the image processing method is stored in a form readable by the image processing apparatus, as well as the program itself.  
         [0006]     By way of example, when a plurality of images are edited simultaneously in an album in which the still and moving images are mixed, the still images or moving images are excluded automatically from images to be edited and then it is indicated that the excluded images have been edited, in a case where the editing is not suited to the still or moving images.  
         [0007]     According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a information processing apparatus for accepting commands of processing applied to data, comprising: holding unit adapted to hold a table in which the data and formats of the data are correlated; receiving unit adapted to receive, from another information processing apparatus via a network, a command to execute the processing in a lump with regard to a plurality of items of the data having different data formats; and processing executing means for referring to the held table and executing the processing with regard to data of a prescribed format among the plurality of items of data being a target of the processing.  
         [0008]     Further, according to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing an information processing method for accepting commands of processing applied to data, comprising the steps of: holding a table in which the data and formats of the data are correlated; receiving, from another information processing apparatus via a network, a command to execute the processing in a lump with regard to a plurality of items of the data having different data formats; and referring to the held table and executing the processing with regard to data of a prescribed format among the plurality of items of data being a target of the processing.  
         [0009]     The method further comprises a step of exercising control in such a manner that the other information processing apparatus is notified via the network of the result of processing the data. The method further comprises a step of exercising control in such a manner that if the processing was not executed with respect to the data, the other information processing apparatus is so notified. The formats of the data include moving-image data and still-image data formats. The processing includes processing for performing editing so as to rotate the data and cause it to be displayed on a monitor of the other information processing apparatus, or at least one of processing for enlarging/reducing size of the data, processing for adjusting image quality of the data, processing for synthesizing the data, processing for halting voice playback of the data and processing for performing editing so as to play back the data in reverse.  
         [0010]     Further, according to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a program for implementing the information processing method, and a storage medium on which the program is stored in a manner readable by the information processing apparatus.  
         [0011]     Further, according to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing an information processing system comprising a first information processing apparatus for accepting commands of processing applied to data, and a second information processing apparatus for commanding execution of the processing, wherein the first information processing apparatus includes: holding unit adapted to hold a table in which the data and formats of the data are correlated; receiving unit adapted to receive, from the second information processing apparatus via a network, a command to execute the processing in a lump with regard to a plurality of items of the data having different data formats; processing executing unit adapted to refer to the held table and execute the processing with regard to data of a prescribed format among the plurality of items of data being a target of the processing; and control unit adapted to exercise control in such a manner that page information relating to result of processing of the data is transmitted to the second information processing apparatus via the network; and the second information processing apparatus has display unit adapted to analyze the page information transmitted and display the result of processing the data on a monitor.  
         [0012]     According to the present invention, as described above, when a plurality of items of held data are to be edited simultaneously, data not suited to such editing is excluded automatically, thereby enhancing user convenience in terms of operation.  
         [0013]     In addition, when a plurality of items of held data are to be edited simultaneously, the fact that data not suited to editing has not been edited is clearly indicated to the user, thereby making it possible to prevent miss-recognition by the user.  
         [0014]     Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]      FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an overall system illustrating the connection relationship among a user who possesses images, a photo site that holds the images, and print sites for printing the images in an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0016]      FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of a photo site according to this embodiment;  
         [0017]      FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware implementation of a photo site according to this embodiment;  
         [0018]      FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating an image-data information management table, which is required in the database of a photo site, for storing image type information and rotation angle information in this embodiment;  
         [0019]      FIG. 5  is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen in a case where a user has rotated all images 90° in the clockwise direction on an image editing screen according to this embodiment;  
         [0020]      FIG. 6  is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displaying a warning issued if images to be editing include a moving image when the user has clicked a rotate button on the image editing screen of this embodiment; and  
         [0021]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating an example of the procedure of image editing processing according to this embodiment. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0022]     A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
       Overview of Configuration and Operation of a Service Providing System According to this Embodiment  
       [0023]      FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating the overall configuration of a system for providing a service according to this embodiment.  
         [0024]     The system includes an image input device  101  such as a digital still camera that is capable of taking a still image and recording it as image data, and a digital movie camera that is capable of shooting a moving image and recording it as moving-image data. The image input device  101  converts an optical image, which consists of image information, to an electric signal, subjects the signal to prescribed image processing and records and plays back the processed data as digital information. The system further includes a user personal computer (abbreviated to “user PC” below)  102 A, and a data transfer interface  116  for transferring captured image data between the image input device  101  and the user PC  102 A. The data transfer interface  116  may be a wired interface typified by a USB or IEEE 1394, or a wireless interface typified by IrDA or Bluetooth. Image data that has been captured by the image input device  101  and stored as digital information is transferred via the data transfer interface  116  to a storage area of an information storage unit typified by a hard-disk drive of the user PC  102 A.  
         [0025]     With regard to image data transfer from the image input device  101  to the user PC  102 A, there are cases where image data that has been stored in the information storage unit in the image input device  101  is transferred collectively in response to an instruction from an operating system or special-purpose software that has been installed in the user PC  102 A, and there are cases where the operating system or special-purpose software of the user PC  102 A acquires a data recording area in an information recording section of the user PC  102 A and transfers the image data in response to a transfer command sent from the image input device  101 .  
       EXAMPLE OF UPLOADING OF IMAGE DATA  
       [0026]     Image data that has thus been transferred from the image input device  101  to the user PC  102 A is uploaded by a procedure, which is set forth below, to a photo site  105  connected to the Internet  104 . A browser that operates at the user PC  102 A and has a standard protocol that enables information transfer over the Internet  104  accesses the photo site  105  using the standard protocol, such as the http protocol, and displays information that is linked to multimedia information, such as video and voice, created in a description language such as HTML or XML managed by the server personal computer of the photo site  105 . By virtue of this operation, the user PC  102 A is capable of receiving a service, which utilizes the Internet  104  as communication infrastructure, provided by the photo site  105 .  
         [0027]     Next, the image data that has been stored in the information storage area of the user PC  102 A is transferred to the photo site  105  in response to a user request from the user PC  102 A. (This transfer shall be referred to as “image upload” below.) There are cases where image upload involves having the user operate the user PC  102 A to select image data, which is desired to be transferred, using the browser described above, and to transfer the image data in operative association with an image-upload request action, and cases where it involves having the user select image data using special-purpose software for image upload and transfer the image data directly from this special-purpose software for image upload. In either case, image upload is executed based upon a protocol such as http or ftp utilizable on the Internet  104 .  
         [0028]     A module that executes this series of operations at the photo site  105  is a photo sharing module  106 . Whether the image data that has been uploaded is usable data is checked by the photo site  105  using the photo sharing module  106 . If it is determined that the data can be utilized, the uploaded image data is stored in an image database  117  and the attribute information thereof is stored in an information database  118 . At this stage the photo sharing module  106  notifies the user PC  102 A of the fact that the image data has been uploaded normally.  
         [0029]     Besides the attribute information of the image data described above, various data such as data constituting user attribute information that has been registered at the photo site  105  and attribute information of a print service provider (abbreviated to “print site” below) that requests print out of uploaded image data are managed in unified fashion in the information database  118 . A specified image represented by the image data thus uploaded can be viewed by the user of the user PC  102 A via the browser. With regard to such viewing, there are also cases where the uploaded image data is managed as an album with a plurality of images serving as one unit. A information DB  118  is managed by a DB server mentioned thereafter.  
       Viewing Album by Browsing User  
       [0030]     The user operates the user PC  102 A to access the photo site  105  using a Web browser and notifies the photo site  105  of the designation of an album that allows viewing and of the e-mail address of the browsing user that allows viewing of the album.  
         [0031]     The photo site  105  generates a Universal Resource Locator (URL) necessary for viewing the specified album. The URL generates a unique address that indicates the location of the album. The photo site  105  creates e-mail the bears the generated URL and transmits the e-mail to the e-mail address of the browsing user. The browsing user who has received the e-mail operates the browsing user PC  102  or a mobile terminal  113 , for example, enters the URL, which is borne by the e-mail, to the Web browser and accesses the photo site  105  via the Internet  104 .  
         [0032]     Upon receiving access from the PC  102  of the browsing user, the photo site  105  sends back Web data that has been created in a description language such as HTML or XML capable of being reproduced by the Web browser that operates on the PC  102 . Accordingly, an album viewing screen is displayed on the monitor of the PC  102  based upon the Web data.  
         [0033]     By way of example, a viewing screen  500  of the kind shown in  FIG. 5  is displayed. Image data in a plurality of different formats included in an album is displayed collectively on the viewing screen  500  of  FIG. 5 . “MOVIE”  504  is a character string indicating that an image displayed therebelow is a moving-image format. In this embodiment, it is assumed that an image  507 , etc., above which “MOVIE”  504  is not being displayed is in the still-image format. A “ROTATE COUNTER-CLOCKWISE BY 90°” button  502  and a “ROTATE CLOCKWISE BY 90°” button  503  are buttons for instructing that the image  507  whose check box  501  has been checked is to be displayed upon rotating it by 90° counter-clockwise or clockwise from its present attitude.  
       EXAMPLE OF STRUCTURE OF PHOTO SITE ACCORDING TO THIS EMBODIMENT  
       [0034]      FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of the photo site  105  according to this embodiment.  
         [0035]     The photo site  105  mainly comprises a firewall (F/W)  201 , a load balancer (LB)  202 , PC and mobile application servers  203 ,  204 , respectively, a content converting server  205 , a mail server  206 , an FTP server  207 , a database (DB) server  208 , a file server  209 , and an Ethernet (registered trademark) switch (SW)  210 .  
         [0036]     The firewall  201  at the photo site  105  functions to block intrusions and attacks from the outside and is used to safely operate the group of servers on the intranet within the photo site  105 .  
         [0037]     The photo site  105  primarily has the PC application server  203 , which provides the PC  102  with service, and the mobile application server  204 , which provides the mobile terminal  113  with service. These application servers function as WWW servers. The application servers  203 ,  204  acquire image information and user information in association with the database server  208  and generate a page at an appropriate time.  
         [0038]     The application server  203  and the mobile application server  204  have a photo sharing module  106  and perform various processing mentioned thereafter by CPU  301  executing the photo sharing module.  
         [0039]     The load balancer  202  is a load dispersing device and has a load dispersing function for assigning access to the photo site  105  to a plurality of servers in the intranet. In addition, the load balancer  202  has a function for acquiring terminal information about the source of the access and discriminating whether a request is a view request from the mobile terminal  113  or a view request from the PC  102 . In accordance with the result of discrimination, the load balancer  202  assigns the view request from the PC  102  to the PC application server  203  and assigns the view request from the mobile terminal  113  to the mobile application server  204  via the content converting server  205 .  
         [0040]     The PC application server  203  has a web page for a network image storing service that supports access from the PC  102 . Further, the PC application server  203  provides a user web page for every user that enables each user to utilize an image acceptance service that makes it possible for each user to view images, set a password and send invitation mail for viewing.  
         [0041]     In response to an indication from the PC application server  203  or mobile application server  204 , the mail server  206  transmits e-mail for confirming service registration and e-mail for reporting information necessary for viewing of images.  
         [0042]     An image from a user is received by the FTP server  207  through the ftp protocol. Once image data has been received, the data is stored in the file server  209  that functions as main storage.  
       EXAMPLE OF HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF PHOTO SITE ACCORDING TO THIS EMBODIMENT  
       [0043]      FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware implementation of a server unit constructing the photo site  105  according to this embodiment. It should be noted that  FIG. 3  is centred on a controller and does not illustrate input/output devices.  
         [0044]     The photo site includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit)  301 , which is the control unit of  FIG. 1 , for controlling the overall server unit constructing the photo site  105 . A program and parameters that do not require modification have been stored in a ROM (Read-Only Memory)  302 . A RAM (Random-Access Memory)  305  is a storage area that stores programs and data temporarily and comprises a data storage area  310  and a program loading area  312 .  
         [0045]     A system program such as an operating system and printer driver or an application program provided by a user or the like is loaded in the program loading area  312  from an external storage device  304  and is executed by the CPU  301 .  
         [0046]     The following areas used in this embodiment are reserved in the data storage area  310 : a transmit display  311   a  created in order to be provided to the communication terminal of the user; receive data  311   b  received from the communication terminal of the user; image-data achievable capacity  311   c  used in order to check whether image data can be held; hold capacity  311   d  presently being used to hold image data; an area  311   e  for storing a flag used when viewing image data from the mobile terminal  113 ; and a session ID  311   f.    
         [0047]     The external storage device  304  includes a fixed hard disk or memory card or portable removable media such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a compact disk (CD) or other optical disks, a magnetic or optical card, an IC card or a memory card. The external storage device  304  comprises a data storage area  341  and a program storage area  342 .  
         [0048]     Stored in the data storage area  341  are a customer information database  341   a  for managing information concerning a user who has requested holding, an image information database  341   b  for managing image information that has been held, and a mobile terminal database  341   c  that manages information for a mobile terminal.  
         [0049]     A program loaded into the program loading area  312  of the RAM  305  and executed is stored in a program storage area  320  (the program may be executed directly by a memory card or the like). Though not illustrated in  FIG. 3 , a system program such as an operating system of BIOS used in this embodiment also is stored in the program storage area  320 . In  FIG. 3 , the following are stored in the program storage area  320  as a program  321  for PC access processing: a user registration module  321   a , a login module  321   b , an album viewing module  321   c  and a print ordering module  321   d . An album viewing module  322   a  is further stored as a program  322  for mobile-terminal access processing.  
         [0050]     In the example of the hardware configuration of the photo site described above, the hardware is illustrated in the form of a single apparatus. However, the arrangement may be in the form of a system in which each server of  FIG. 2  is an independent device and all of the devices are connected by a LAN (Local Area Network). Further, storage devices, particularly the external storage device  304 , may be dispersed as a plurality of devices.  
       EXAMPLE OF DATABASE STRUCTURE  
       [0051]     Here only an image-data information management table that indicates the image data used in this embodiment is illustrated. In addition, tables such as a customer information table, image information table, moving-image information table, print information table and mobile-terminal information tables and image data such as still images, moving images and thumbnail images that are content per se also are stored in the databases  117 ,  118 , though these are not described here in detail. In this embodiment, image-type codes are stored in the image-data information table, though this does not impose a limitation upon the invention.  
         [0052]      FIG. 4  illustrates an example of the structure of an image-data information management table  400 . It should be noted that only data used in describing this embodiment is illustrated and that other data is not shown.  
         [0053]     The image-data information management table  400  in the database  118  managed by the photo site  105  is created, one record per image of the image data, and is registered and managed in the database  118 . Using an image ID  401  as a key, the image-data information management table  400  stores an image-type code  402 , which is the result of numerically encoding the type of image, and a rotation angle  403 . If editing relating to a rotation angle has been requested, the rotation angle of the record of interest is overwritten. With regard to the image-type code  402 , “0” signifies still-image data and “1” signifies moving-image data. However, this takes into consideration the general circumstances, and the type and definition of image-type code or editing content do not limit the present invention. Further, the rotation angle  403  need not be an angle per se and may be a code obtained by putting an angle in numerical form.  
       EXAMPLE OF SELECTION WHEN EDITING A PLURALITY OF ITEMS OF IMAGE DATA  
       [0054]     The user operates the PC  102  and uses a browser to cause an album managed by the photo site to be displayed on the image editing screen  500  of  FIG. 5 . If a request for rotation processing is issued by clicking the “ROTATE CLOCKWISE BY 90°” button  503  with regard to an image to be edited selected, by checking the check box  501 , from among a plurality of images in which still and moving images are mixed, then the photo site  105  will search each record of the image-data information management table  400  for a record that matches the image ID  401  using as a key the image ID of each item of image data included in the images to be edited.  
         [0055]     If the value of the image-type code  402  of the record to be edited for which a matching image ID has been found as a result of the search is “0”, then the value of the rotation angle  403  of the record to be edited is overwritten by +90. Furthermore, with regard to image data having the image ID, the photo site  105  issues a rotation-processing request using the value of the rotation angle  403  of the record to be edited. The photo site  105  creates a thumbnail image based upon the rotated image data, creates Web data in such a manner that this thumbnail image will be displayed by the browser of the user PC  102  and transmits the data to the user PC  102  via the Internet  104 .  
         [0056]     If the value of the image-type code  402  of the record to be edited is “1”, then the photo site  105  does not issue a rotation-processing request with regard to the image data having this image ID and also does not change the value of the rotation angle  403  of the record to be edited. The reason for this is that unlike a still image, a moving image is not suited to rotation processing.  
         [0057]     In this case, the photo site  105  transmits the Web data, which is for displaying a warning message  600  shown in  FIG. 6  on the monitor of the user PC  102 , to the user PC  102  via the Internet  104 , thereby warning the user of the fact that the moving image is not suited to rotation processing.  
         [0058]     It should be noted that the procedure for selecting/excluding moving and still images described above is representative only and does not limit the present invention.  
         [0059]     Thus, the format of image data representing moving and still images, etc., and the editing information such as the rotation angle are correlated and managed in the form of a table and the editing of each image is executed based upon the table.  
         [0060]     Thereafter, the editing of images in the present system will be described.  
         [0061]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operating procedure of the system according to this embodiment.  
         [0062]     If the user operates the user PC  102 , displays the image editing screen  500  using the browser and requests editing of image data that has been uploaded to the photo site  105  beforehand, then, at step S 701 , the user PC  102  transmits a plurality of IDs that identify the image to be edited and the content of editing processing (rotation processing in the example of  FIG. 5 ) which is performed in a lump to a plurality of images to the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  via the Internet  104 . It may be so arranged that information such as a password necessary to perform editing of image data is transmitted as necessary at this time, though this is not shown in the flowchart.  
         [0063]     Next, at step S 702 , the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  receives the information from the user PC  102  necessary to perform editing and judges whether or not the received information includes any problems. If there is no problem with the received information, then control proceeds to step S 703 . If the received information has a problem, then the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  sends back error information such as a warning in response to the edit request from the user PC  102 , though this is not illustrated in the flowchart. If the received information has a problem, there are cases where information necessary for editing is missing or where the image of interest does not exist at the information DB  118  in the photo site  105 .  
         [0064]     The PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  reads the image-data information management table  400  out of the information database  118  at step S 703  based upon the image ID of the image of interest received at step S 702 . This is followed by step S 704 , at which the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  determines, based upon the editing content received at step S 702 , whether the editing request can be executed with respect to the image of interest. In this embodiment, the editing content is rotation processing of the image and the photo site  105  determines, based upon the image-type code  402  in image-data information management table  400 , whether the image of interest is a still image (“0”), which can be subjected to rotation processing, or a moving image (“1”).  
         [0065]     If the image is a moving image, then the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  prepares a warning message of the kind shown in  FIG. 6  at step S 705  and control proceeds to step S 706 . If the image is a still image, on the other hand, then control proceeds to step S 706  and the PC application server  203  the photo site  105  determines whether processing of all images of interest designated by the user for editing has been completed. If an image remains, control returns to step S 703  and processing is repeated.  
         [0066]     If processing of all images of interest has been completed, then it is determined at step S 707  whether a moving image that cannot be rotated is present among the plurality of the images of interest designated for editing. If a moving image is present, then the PC application server  203  the photo site  105  transmits the warning message of  FIG. 6  to the user PC  102  via the Internet  104  at step S 708 . If there is no moving image which cannot be rotated, then control proceeds to step S 712 .  
         [0067]     When the user PC  102  receives the error message at step S 709 , it receives a user input specifying “OK” or “CANCEL” from the screen of  FIG. 6  and transmits this to the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  at step S 710 . Then, at step S 711 , the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  terminates processing without applying editing to the image if “CANCEL” is received, or causes processing to advance to step S 711  if “OK” is received.  
         [0068]     At step S 712 , the PC application server  203  in the photo site  105  adds +90 to the rotation angle  403  with regard to the still image that can be edited and executes rotation processing based upon the value of the rotation angle  403 . Next, at step S 713 , the photo site  105  creates Web data for causing the browser of the user PC  102  to display the edited image and transmits the Web data to the user PC  102  via the Internet  104 . The user PC  102  receives the edited image at step S 714  and updates the image displayed by the browser.  
         [0069]     In the embodiment described above, rotation is illustrated as an example of an editing item. However, the effects of the present invention manifest themselves also with regard to all types of image editing such as enlargement/reduction, adjustment of image quality and image synthesis. The same holds true with regard to editing applicable only to moving images, such as muting and reverse playback, as editing items. The effects of the present invention manifest themselves particularly in regard to these items.  
         [0070]     Further, the data held in the server is content consisting of still- or moving-image data. However, it goes without saying the data may be other electronic data such as document data or voice data.  
         [0071]     Further, in the above embodiment, the present invention has been described specifically taking as an example the editing of an image held at a photo site from a personal computer or mobile terminal. However, the present invention discloses an arrangement in which data that can and cannot undergo editing of content by a user via the Internet can be selected. The invention is not limited to the above-described system nor solely to images and covers all of such data.  
         [0072]     For example, the invention is applicable not only to editing but also to printing in similar fashion. That is, when printing a plurality of images in a lump is ordered, the following process can be performed automatically. If an image represents a still image, a print order can be accepted, the print site  109  can be instructed to print the particular image and the data is printed by the printer  111 , because the image data have a format enable to be printed. If the image represents a moving image, then a print order cannot be accepted and a warning can be issued to the user, because the image data a format disable to be printed.  
         [0073]     Further, it goes without saying that the object of the invention is attained also by supplying a storage medium (or recording medium) on which the program codes of the software for performing the functions of the foregoing embodiment have been recorded to a system or an apparatus, reading the program codes with a computer (e.g., a CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus from the storage medium, and then executing the program codes. In this case, the program codes read from the storage medium themselves implement the novel functions of the embodiment, and the program codes per se and storage medium storing the program codes constitute the invention. Further, besides the case where the aforesaid functions according to the embodiment are implemented by executing the program codes read by a computer, it goes without saying that the present invention covers a case where an operating system or the like running on the computer performs a part of or the entire process based upon the designation of program codes and implements the functions according to the embodiment.  
         [0074]     It goes without saying that the present invention further covers a case where, after the program codes read from the storage medium are written in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or in a memory provided in a function expansion unit connected to the computer, a CPU or the like contained in the function expansion card or function expansion unit performs a part of or the entire process based upon the designation of program codes and implements the function of the above embodiment.  
         [0075]     In a case where the present invention is applied to the above-mentioned storage medium, program code that includes the program code corresponding to the flowchart described earlier is stored on the storage medium.  
         [0076]     As many apparently widely different embodiments of the present invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims.