Patent Publication Number: US-2004057072-A1

Title: Network printer driver pre-configuration for downloading and installation

Description:
BACKGROUND OF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] This invention pertains to network printer-driver management, and in particular, to a web-based network system and methodology that involve the “pre-delivery” preparation (before downloading and installation) of fully pre-configured printer drivers which are readied, at a network-common consolidation site, for delivery to requesting user work stations seeking to use selected network-available printing devices. It also relates, in a somewhat modified form, to such a system and methodology which operates in a kind of “on call” manner, wherein printer drivers for installation to users&#39; work stations are configured for delivery and installation on the occurrence, and as a consequence, of a user&#39;s call for such a delivery and installation.  
       [0002] Fundamentally, the present invention is aimed at dealing with a conventional network situation which is that tools and methods have not been made available that allow for efficient centralizing and managing (configuring and installing) of printer drivers needed for a multiplicity of available network printing device. More specifically, the task currently of properly configuring and installing such drivers to network users&#39; work stations is most often accomplished in a kind of case-by-case fashion which is quite time consuming, inefficient and inconvenient. In particular, the configuring and installing of printer drivers is often performed by a manager of information systems whose valuable time must also be employed to address many other important network issues.  
       [0003] Mentioning just a few representative definers of current inefficiency and inconvenience, while local printing-device monitoring tools can configure the various options provided in printer driver settings on a work-station by work-station basis, and at a point in time after a particular printer driver has already been installed, remote printer-device administration tools do not typically have the capability to change the printer-driver settings of existing locally installed printer drivers. Further, remote administration tools typically do not currently have the capability to pre-configure and to change printer settings for drivers that are being downloaded and installed in users&#39; work stations.  
       [0004] The present invention uniquely handles this printer-driver situation in what can be thought of as two phases of behavior. The first involves the pre-configuring of specific printer drivers for downloading and installation to specific, functionally associated, network-available printing devices. This pre-configuring takes place following appropriate network collecting and documenting of the relevant structural and operational characteristics of network-available printing devices. The second phase of behavior involves the making available of these pre-configured drivers to different users for downloading and installation to their respective work stations. Pre-configuring can be performed either well in advance of a user&#39;s call for downloading and installation, or immediately after, and as a consequence of, such a call.  
       [0005] The system and methodology of the present invention additionally feature a  20  strong web-based characteristic, whereby information managers and work-station users can employ the advantages of the invention via web-based network interfaces (web browsers), and http-protocol communication.  
       [0006] Lying at an early stage in the practice and implementation of the present invention is the allowance which is provided for remote printer administration tools, either automatically, or under the command and control of an information services administrator, to learn about and assess the existing hardware characteristics and configurations of network-available printers. This learning process provides a basis, in accordance with practice of the present invention, for fully preparing and configuring appropriate network printer drivers before driver installations actually take place at user work stations. Various characteristics of printing devices are assessed in this process, including, as an illustration and without limit, such things as RAM configurations, the presence or absence of so-called job finishers, print queue names, assigned IP addresses, and other things. With this kind of information at hand, practice of the present invention allows for efficient pre-configuring of printing device drivers, either just immediately before downloading and installation (i.e. when a user calls for a driver installation at his or her work station), or at times much earlier, depending upon how a system administrator wishes to manage the handling of printer-driver characteristics.  
       [0007] Various other features and advantages which characterize this invention will become more fully apparent as the description that now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
     [0008]FIG. 1, the single drawing figure herein, is a simplified and somewhat fragmentary block/schematic diagram illustrating a printer-driver management, web-based system and methodology constructed, and operable, in accordance with the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
     [0009] Turning now to the single drawing figure, indicated generally at  10  is a web-based network system which is constructed for operation in accordance with a preferred form of the present invention. Network  10  includes an appropriate data-communication structure  12 , which, as specifically illustrated herein for exposition purposes, takes the form of a local-area, hardwired network that might be resident, for example, within a single particular building. It should be understood that while a specific local-area network has been chosen herein for illustration purposes, other kinds of web-based network configurations, could be employed just as well to practice the invention. For example, a network involving multiple distributed extensions over a large geographic area, such as within a large office complex, might be involved, as could also a much larger area network of the kind that includes longer-distance Internet-type connectivity. As will become apparent, the features and utility of the present invention do not necessarily depend upon the nature of the specific web-based network which is involved. All that is required is that, at appropriate times which will become apparent, full network-communication connectivity be in existence between different network devices.  
     [0010] Included in network  10 , in addition to the data-communication structure just mentioned, is a web-based administration server  14  which is configured to operate in accordance with the present invention, and which is directly accessible over the network through a web-based user interface  16  that is connected to communication structure  12 . This interface is provided so that a system manager (administrator) can perform, among other things, certain tasks in relation to printer-driver management in accordance with the present invention. Server  14  is also referred to herein as a driver-management, web-based server site, and as a network-connected site.  
     [0011] Further included in network system  10  are two (a population of) network-available printers, or printing devices,  22 ,  24 , which herein each takes the form of a so-called multi-function printing (MFP) device. It also includes two web-based user computer work stations and interfaces  26 ,  28 , hereinafter referred to simply as work stations or as interfaces. For the purpose of illustrating the performance characteristics of the present invention in the environment of network  10 , it is assumed that the respective users of interfaces  26 ,  28  wish to make use of the printing capabilities of one or both of devices  22 ,  24 .  
     [0012] Obviously, if the work stations which are associated with interfaces  26 ,  28  are to have the opportunity to use the resources of devices  22 ,  24 , these work stations must be correctly equipped with appropriate, respective, full-function printer drivers for these printing devices. It is in relation to arming and enabling these two user work stations selectively to make use of devices  22 ,  24  that the present invention makes its special contribution in system  10 .  
     [0013] Included within server  14  in the system embodiment now being described, are four blocks shown at  30 ,  32 ,  34 ,  36 . Respective functional flow connections between these internal blocks are illustrated by arrows  38 ,  40 ,  42 . Block  30  represents an available repository of printing-device specific information, including the identities, characteristics and network addresses of printing devices  22 ,  24 , and also including information specifying appropriate drivers and driver installation data relating to these printing devices. Block  32  is a selection-enabling block which arms server  14 , according to practice of the invention, to select information from block  30  in preparation for pre-configuring a driver for one of devices  22 ,  24 . Block  34  is a configuration block wherein a driver/driver-installer for the selected device is/are prepared. Block  36  acts as a storage and delivery site for receiving, holding, and delivering, as required, pre-configured drivers.  
     [0014] Blocks  30 - 36 , inclusive, constitute pre-configuration activity structure herein, blocks  30 ,  32 ,  34  as response structure, and block  36  constitutes a storage location. Block  36  is also referred to herein as a network-common consolidation site. The exact internal structures and operating characteristics of blocks  30 - 36  can take on any one or more of various conventional forms well within the knowledge and experience of those skilled in the art. Accordingly, details of the blocks are not elaborated herein.  
     [0015] Describing now a first stage, or phase, of operation and behavior of the present invention, as pictured in the drawing, in any appropriate manner, as by automatic behavior, or by virtue of a command given at interface  16  by a system administrator, web-based server  14  is enabled to gather, and does gather, information relating to the hardware and operational characteristics and configurations of the available network printing devices, such as MFP devices  22 ,  24 . This is a point in time during which appropriate connectivity between devices  22 ,  24  and server  14  must exist via data-communication structure  12 .  
     [0016] Accordingly, server  14  acquires this information, and effectively stores it in block  30  along with relevant printer-driver and installation data which the server must also gather, or have gathered, and stored.  
     [0017] At an appropriate point in time, which might be just after acquisition of hardware, etc. configuration information regarding devices  22 ,  24 , server  14  performs several activities which are pictured within it in FIG. 2 in blocks  32 ,  34 ,  36 . Preferably, the activities that take place in these three blocks occurs shortly after acquisition of the device-specific information just mentioned with regard to devices  22 ,  24 .  
     [0018] With server  14  so armed with information within block  30 , appropriate pre-configuration of installable drivers for devices  22 ,  24  takes place in either one of two different specific approaches. One approach involves full pre-configuration of the appropriate drivers essentially as soon as server  14  is armed with all of the appropriate information, thus to create early, and to store in block  36 , pre-configured drivers using the interaction between block  36  and blocks  30 ,  32 ,  34 . This can be done whether automatically, or manually under the control of a system administrator working at interface  16 .  
     [0019] Another approach contemplated by the invention is one wherein driver pre-configuration, and storage for delivery from block  36 , occur as a consequence of, and immediately after, a call by a user of the work stations associated with interfaces  26 ,  28  to install the appropriate driver for use of either one of printing devices  22 ,  24 . In this second kind of approach, when a user calls for downloading and installation of a driver, say, for device  24 , immediately after that call is communicated over structure  12  and received by server  14 , the server, employing block  32 , selects the appropriate driver from block  30 , pre-configures it in block  34 , and sends it to block  36  for immediate download delivery to the user work station from where the call came.  
     [0020] In both approaches, drivers appropriate to selected network printing devices are fully pre-configured prior to downloading and installation at a user&#39;s work station.  
     [0021] From the point of view of a user operating at one of the two work stations pictured in the drawing figure, the invention promotes the opportunity for that user, without having to perform any printer-driver configuring activities, to call for downloading and installation of a fully pre-configured and ready-to-use driver which is appropriately configured for the selected printing device.  
     [0022] What has just been described are phases of operation uniquely offered by the system and methodology of this invention relating to the full pre-configuring, and the making available for downloading and installation, of drivers for all intended network printing devices. The specific population of network printing devices chosen for “attention” by the present invention may, of course, be all, or less that all network connected printing devices. This is merely a matter of option and choice. The task of an administrator with respect to equipping a particular user work station with a driver or drivers for one or perhaps many selected printing devices is greatly simplified by the establishment of a consolidated, network-common delivery site from which preconfigured drivers just need to be called for by work-station users.  
     [0023] The system and operating methodology which has thus now been described for a preferred form and manner of practicing the invention have been illustrated and discussed in the setting of an otherwise conventional local area network, wherein there are no data-flow barriers, such as a firewall, in existence between printer-devices, user work stations, and a server, such as server  14 . Looking again for a moment at the single drawing figure, shown generally and symbolically by a dashed line at  44  is one of any conventional variety of communication firewall. Relative to server  14 , firewall  44  readily permits outgoing communication, but not the reverse. Such a firewall, of course, appropriately stands in the way of certain kinds of communications, but must effectively be out of the way at least at the time when server  14  is calling for the reporting to it of the appropriate hardware and capability configurations of the network printing devices whose drivers are to be pre-configured for delivery by the server. Such a firewall might well exist in many kinds of systems, such as Internet-connected systems, and it should be understood that the present invention can function appropriately even in that kind of a setting with appropriate steps taken to “open up” the firewall under circumstances where connectivity must be established for server  14  to perform its pre-configuration, incoming data-acquisition functions. No specific firewall or specific manner of selectively breaching such a wall, are disclosed herein, inasmuch as those skilled in the art will readily understand how to accomplish this for all kinds of different network systems having different firewalls. In the arrangement involving such a firewall, the firewall is referred to as a selectively breachable firewall.  
     [0024] The novel methodology of this invention as employed in a network can be viewed as including the steps of: (a) furnishing a driver-management, web-based server site from which a pre-configured device-specific printer driver for a selected, network-available printing device may be made available for downloading to, and installation in, the work station of a prospective network user of that device; (b) additionally, furnishing pre-configuration activity structure which is operatively associated with that server site; and (c) operating that activity structure to pre-configure an appropriate printer driver for the selected device for subsequent delivery of that driver through the site in order to implement a user&#39;s call for the downloading and installing of the driver to the user&#39;s associated work station.  
     [0025] The pre-configuration activity can be performed either well before the arrival of any “call” for downloading and installation, or immediately just after, and as a consequence of, such a call. The steps of the invention can be performed also in a network having a firewall, where that firewall is appropriately breachable with specific reference to operation of the invention.  
     [0026] Thus there has been disclosed, illustrated and described herein a novel system and methodology relating to the pre-configuration (before downloading and installation) of appropriate drivers for a population of network-available printing devices. Pre-configured drivers are conveniently and efficiently made available for delivery from a network-common consolidation site which is associated with a server that functions to implement the driver pre-configuration activities. Also clearly disclosed, illustrated and described herein is the opportunity which the system and methodology of the invention provide to users at their respective work stations to call for the installation and downloading of fully pre-configured drivers, without those users having to go through the process of driver configuration, and without necessitating the case-by-case intervention and tailoring of (and by) a system administrator to perform multiple, singular specific driver installations to a host of work stations.  
     [0027] Accordingly, while a preferred embodiment and manner of practicing the invention, and certain variations and modifications, have been illustrated, described and discussed herein, it is appreciated that other variations and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.