Patent Publication Number: US-2005134893-A1

Title: Network image forming apparatus to notify error and operation controlling method thereof

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-88194, filed on Dec. 5, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a network image forming apparatus capable of notifying a user terminal in a connected network of an occurrence of an error, and an operation controlling method thereof.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Image forming apparatuses, such as photocopiers, printer, facsimile machines, or multi function peripherals (MFP) that combine two or more of the following functions: copying, scanning, printing and faxing functions, commonly have a printing function. Printers are a most well-known image forming apparatus widely used for printing data transmitted from computers or scanners on paper.  
      Recently, the printer is networked to several user terminals via a wired or a wireless local area network (LAN) to enable remotely situated users to share the printer, thereby improving efficiency of the printer.  
      A network printing system is a system that connects one single network printer with a plurality of user terminals (e.g., personal computers), which requests the network printer a printing job (operation) through a network such as LAN. The network printer prints data transmitted from the user terminals linked through the LAN in a FIFO sequence. The establishment of such a network printing system can improve the efficiency of the printer and realize a cost-saving office automation system.  
      In a process of receiving print data from the user terminals or printing the received print data, errors may occur in the network printer. In this case, a conventional network printer displays a message through a manipulation panel provided on a printer body to inform of the occurrence of the errors.  
      However, the conventional network printing system has a problem in that the user has to go to the place where the network printer is located to check the occurrence of the error. Also, the conventional network printer just provides information on a cause of the error and cannot provide a solution to the error, which results in delay of a printing operation until the error is corrected.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      In order to solve the above and/or other problems, it is an aspect of the present general inventive concept to provide a network image forming apparatus capable of automatically notifying a user terminal, which has requested a printing job (operation), of an occurrence of an error when the error occurs in the image forming apparatus, and an operation controlling method thereof.  
      Additional aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.  
      The above and/or other aspects of the present general inventive concept may be achieved by providing a network image forming apparatus that may include a communication part to communication-interface with at least one user terminal, a print engine part to print print data transmitted from the at least one user terminal, an error detector to detect the presence of an error by checking an operating status of the print engine part and generating an error code corresponding to the kind of the detected error, a URL information generator to generate URL information on a web page that provides solution information corresponding to the error code, and a controller to control the communication part to transmit the URL information generated by the URL information generator and corresponding to the error code to the user terminal that has requested a print job (operation).  
      In an aspect of the present general inventive concept, the network image forming apparatus can further include a storage part to store web site information of an external server that provides information on the network image forming apparatus, and a model serial number and firmware information of the network image forming apparatus.  
      In another aspect of the present general inventive concept, the URL information generator can generate the URL information based on the web site information of the external server, the model serial number, the firmware information, and error code information output from the error detector.  
      In yet another aspect of the present general inventive concept, the external server can provide the solution information corresponding to the error code through the web page.  
      In still another aspect of the present general inventive concept, the error detector can include a lookup table to store the error code information corresponding to the kinds of errors, and the error detector can detect the kind of error in a process of checking the operating status of the print engine part, can read out the error code corresponding to the kind of the error from the lookup table, and can output the read error code.  
      In another aspect of the present general inventive concept, the user terminal can receive the URL information from the network image forming apparatus and can drive a web browser to attempt to access to the web page corresponding to the URL information.  
      The above and/or other aspects of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing an operation controlling method of a network image forming apparatus which prints print data transmitted from at least one user terminal, the method including performing a print job with respect to the print data corresponding to a print request signal, if an error has occurred during the performance of the print job, detecting the kind of the error and outputting an error code corresponding to the kind of the error, generating URL information on a web page that provides solution information corresponding to the error code, and transmitting the generated URL information to a user terminal which has requested the print (operation).  
      In an aspect of the present general inventive concept, the generating of URL information can include generating the URL information based on web site information of an external server that provides information on the network image forming apparatus, a model serial number and firmware information of the network image forming apparatus, and error code information. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a network printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating an operation controlling method of the network printer of the networking printing system of  FIG. 1  when an error occurs in the network printer according to another embodiment of the present general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating an operation controlling method of a user terminal of the networking printing system of  FIG. 1  according to another embodiment of the present general inventive concept; and  
       FIGS. 4 through 6  are views illustrating examples of the result of executing URL information received from a network printer in the network printing system of  FIG. 1  according to another embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing a network printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , the network printing system can be configured with a user terminal  100 , a network printer  200 , and an external server  300 . The user terminal  100  can access the network printer  200  through a wired or a wireless local area network (LAN)  10  and also the external server  300  through the Internet  30 . The external server  300  may be a printer manufacturer server that provides information on the network printer  200 . Although not shown, a plurality of the user terminals  100  may be linked to the network printer  200  through the LAN  10 .  
      The user terminal  100  can transmit print data to the network printer  200  through the LAN  10 , and the network printer  200  can perform a print job (operation) with respect to the print data received from the user terminal  100 . When an error occurs in the network printer  200  during a process of receiving the print data from the user terminal  100  or performing the print job with respect to the print data, the network printer  200  can generate URL (Uniform Resource Locator) information on a web page that provides information on the error. The generated URL information can be transmitted to the user terminal  100 . The web page providing the URL information on the error is a web document that is created by the external server  300  to provide information on the network printer  200  on the web, such as the Internet  30 .  
      The user terminal  100  may include an input part  110 , a display part  120 , a ROM  130 , a RAM  140 , a memory  150 , a terminal communication part  160 , and a terminal controller  170 .  
      The input part  110  can transmit to the terminal controller  170  a key input signal generated by a user&#39;s key manipulation. The input part  110  may be a keyboard, a mouse and a touch panel.  
      The display part  120 , such as a monitor, can display an operating status of the user terminal  100  according to a control of the terminal controller  170 . In this embodiment, the display part  120  can display the web page to provide information on the error that has occurred in the network printer  200 .  
      The ROM  130 , such as a non-volatile memory, can store various control programs which are necessary to realize functions of the user terminal  100 .  
      The RAM  140 , such as a volatile memory, can temporarily store various data resulted from the execution of programs of the terminal controller  170 .  
      The memory  150 , such as a typical hard disk drive (HDD), can contain an application  152  driven in an operating system, a printer driver  154 , a spooler  156 , and a port monitor  158 .  
      The application  152  may include document-editing programs and a web browser  152   a  that provides a way to search the web document written in a hypertext markup language (HTML). One example of the document-editing programs may be office programs developed by Microsoft, and one example of the web browser  152   a  may be Microsoft&#39;s Explorer or Netscape.  
      The printer driver  154  can translate the print data written by the document-editing program into a PCL (Printer Control Language) which is comprehensible by the network printer  200 .  
      The spooler  156 , which is a program provided in most operating systems, can manage spooling of the print data output from the printer driver  154 . The print data temporarily stored in the spooler  156  can be transmitted to the port monitor  158  according to a processing speed of the network printer  200 .  
      The port monitor  158  can be a program to control the terminal communication part  160  electrically and physically connected with the network printer  200 . The port monitor  158  can control the print data to be transmitted from the spooler  156  to the network printer  200  through the terminal communication part  160 . Also, the port monitor  158  can monitor the terminal communication part  160 . When the receipt of the URL information from the network printer  200  is confirmed as a result of monitoring of the communication part  160 , the port monitor  158  can call the web browser  152   a  stored in the application  152 . Then, the display part  120  of the user terminal  100  can display the web page corresponding to the received URL information.  
      The terminal communication part  160  can perform communication interfacing operation with the network printer  200  linked through the LAN  10  and with the external server  300  linked through the Internet  30 . The terminal communication part  160  may employ a NIC (Network Interface Card).  
      The terminal controller  170  can control overall operations of the user terminal  100  according to the control programs stored in the ROM  130 . Upon receiving a print command about a document created by the document-editing program through the input device  110 , the terminal controller  170  can control the printer driver  154 , the spooler  156 , the port monitor  158  and the terminal communication part  160  to transmit a print ready document (created document) to the network printer  200 . The print data created by the document-editing program can be translated by the printer driver  154  into the PLC which is comprehensible by the network printer  200 , and then transmitted to the network printer  200  through the spooler  156 , the port monitor  158  and the terminal communication part  160 .  
      Meanwhile, the network printer  200  may include a manipulation panel part  210 , a memory  220 , a printer communication part  230 , a printer engine part  240 , an error detector  250 , a URL information generator  260  and a printer controller  270 .  
      The manipulation panel part  210  can be provided with a plurality of manipulation keys that select and set functions supported by the network printer  200 , an input part  212  to supply the printer controller  270  with key input signals corresponding to the manipulation keys, and a display part  214  to display an operating status of the network printer  200  according to a control of the printer controller  270 .  
      The memory  220  can include a ROM  222  and a RAM  224 .  
      The ROM  222 , such as a non-volatile memory, can store various control programs which are necessary to realize the functions supported by the network printer  200 . In this embodiment, the ROM  22  can store a model serial number of the network printer  200 , firmware information (firmware version information), and URL information (e.g., http://www.samsung.com/) about a web site of the external server  300  that provides information on the network printer  200 .  
      The RAM  224 , such as a volatile memory, can temporarily store data which is generated during the execution of programs of the printer controller  270  and data which is generated during the printing of the received print data.  
      The printer communication part  230  can perform an operation of communication interfacing with the user terminal  100  linked through the LAN  10 . The printer communication part  230  can receive the print data from the user terminal  100  through the LAN  10 , and can also transmit the URL information generated by the URL information generator  260 , which will be described below, to the user terminal  100 .  
      The print engine part  240  can print the print data on recording paper according to the control of the printer controller  270 .  
      The error detector  250  can monitor each operating status of the printer communication part  230  and the print engine part  240 , and can detect an occurrence of an error in a process of receiving the print data from the user terminal  100  or performing the print job. When the error occurs in the network printer  200 , the error detector  250  can detect the kind of the error and can transmit an error code corresponding to the detected error to the URL information generator  260 .  
      The error detector  250  may have a lookup table (LUT)  252  containing error code information to be output to the URL information generator  260  corresponding to the error code and the kind of the detected error.  
      Table 1 illustrates one example of the LUT  252  stored in the error detector  250   
                           TABLE 1                                   Kind of Error   Error Code                          JAM   1234           TONER LOW   1235           PAPER EMPTY   1236                      
 
      The URL information generator  260  can generate the URL information on the web page that provides information corresponding to the error code transmitted from the error detector  250  under the control of the printer controller  270 . The URL information on the web page that provides the information on the present error can be generated based on the URL information on the web site of the external server  300  providing the information about the network printer  200 , and the model serial number of the network printer  200 , the firmware version information, all of which are stored in the ROM  222 , and the error code information outputted from the error detector  250 .  
      More specifically, when an error code  1234  corresponding to the paper jam is received from the error detector  250 , the URL information generator  260  can extract from the ROM  222  the URL information of the external server  300  (e.g., http://www.samsung.com/), the model serial number of the network printer  200  (e.g., ML-7300), and the firmware version (e.g., 1.03). The URL information generator  260  can generate the URL information on the web page (e.g., “http://www.samsung.com/printer/ML-7300/1.03/error/1234”) that provides the information on the present error, based on a combination of the extracted information with the error code outputted from the error detector  250 . Here, “/printer/ML-7300/1.03/error/1234” denotes a directory existing in the external server  300 . A sign ‘/’ can be used to designate a name of a directory required by a file system having a hierarchical directory structure.  
      Table 2 illustrates one example of the URL information on the web page generated by the URL information generator  260  corresponding to the error code.  
                   TABLE 2                       Error Code   URL Address of Web page                  1234   http://www.samsung.com/printer/ML-7300/1.03/error/1234       1235   http://www.samsung.com/printer/ML-7300/1.03/error/1235       1236   http://www.samsung.com/printer/ML-7300/1.03/error/1236                  
 
      Referring to Table 2, the URL addresses on the web page generated by the URL information generator  260  can be different according to the kinds of errors that have occurred in the network printer  200 . The URL information on the web page generated by the URL information generator  260  corresponds to the error codes and is temporarily stored in the RAM  224 .  
      The printer controller  270  can control overall operations of the network printer  200  according to the control programs stored in the ROM  222 . More specifically, when the print data is received from the user terminal  100  through the printer communication part  230 , the printer controller  270  can control the print engine part  240  to perform the print job with respect to the received print data. When the error code corresponding to the error detected by the error detector  250  is received during the print job of the print engine part  240 , the print controller  270  can control the URL information generator  260  to generate the URL information on the web page corresponding to the error code, and can control the print communication part  230  to transmit the generated URL information to the user terminal  100 .  
      Hereinafter, an operation controlling method of the network printer  200  and the user terminal  100  when the error occurs in the network printer  200  will be described with reference to FIGS.  2  to  6 .  
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating the operation controlling method of the network printer  200  of  FIG. 1  when the error occurs.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , when the print data is received from the user terminal  100  through the printer communication part  230  (operation S 410 ), the printer controller  270  can control the print engine part  240  to perform the print job with respect to the received print data (operation S 420 ). The error detector  250  can determine whether the error has occurred during the print job of the print engine part  240  (operation S 430 ).  
      In operation S 430 , if it is determined that the error occurs or has occurred in the network printer  200  during the print job, the error detector  250  can detect the kind of the error, read out an error code corresponding to the kind of the error from the LUT  252 , and output the read error code to the URL information generator  260  (operation S 440 ).  
      Upon receiving the error code that corresponds to the kind of the present error detected by the error detector  250 , the URL information generator  260  can generate the URL information on the web page that provides the information on the error code (operation S 450 ). The URL information generated by the URL information generator  260  can be based on the URL information on the web site of the external server  300 , the model serial number of the network printer  200 , the firmware version information, all of which are stored in the ROM  222 , and the error code information received from the error detector  250 .  
      As the URL information on the web page that provides a solution to the present error is generated, the printer controller  270  can control the print communication part  230  to transmit the generated URL information to the user terminal  100  (operation S 460 ).  
      Although the error occurs in the process of performing the print job according to this embodiment, this should not be considered as limiting. The operations from S 440  to S 460  can be automatically repeated when any error occurs or has occurred in the network printer  200 .  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating an operation controlling method of the user terminal  100  of  FIG. 1 .  
      Referring to  FIGS. 1 through 3 , a user inputs the print command to output the document created by the document-editing program to the network printer  200  (operation S 510 ). Corresponding to the print command, the printer driver  154  can translate the print data into data which is comprehensible by the network printer  200 . The print data translated by the printer driver  154  can be transmitted to the network printer  200  through the spooler  156 , the port monitor  158 , and the terminal communication part  160  (operation S 520 ).  
      The port monitor  158  can monitor whether predetermined information (URL information) is received or has been received from the network printer  200  during the transmission of the print data to the network printer  200  through the terminal communication part  160  or after the complete transmission of the print data (operation S 530 ).  
      When the URL information has been received from the network printer  200 , the port monitor  158  can determine that the error has occurred in the network printer  200 . If the URL information on the error has been received from the network printer  200  before all of the print data is transmitted to the network printer  200 , the port monitor  158  can control the terminal communication part  160  to stop the transmission of the print data to the network printer  200 .  
      In operation S 530 , if it is determined that the URL information is received or has been received from the network printer  200  through the terminal communication part  160 , the port monitor  158  can invoke the web browser  152   a  to enter the URL information received from the network printer  200  (operation S 540 ).  
      When the user enters the received URL by invoking the web browser  152   a , the display device  120  can display the web page that provides solution information on the error code generated by the network printer  200 .  
       FIGS. 4 through 6  illustrate examples of a window resulted from the execution of the URL information received from the network printer  200 .  FIG. 4  illustrates a result of executing the URL information corresponding to a paper jam error,  FIG. 5  illustrates the result of executing the URL information corresponding to a toner low error, and  FIG. 6  illustrates a result of executing the URL information corresponding to a paper empty error.  
      As shown in FIGS.  4  to  6 , the web page corresponding to the URL information received from the network printer  200  displays the model serial number of the network printer, the firmware version, the kind of the an error, error description and the solution. Accordingly, the user can be aware of the kind of the error, a cause of the error and the solution through the web page displayed on the display device  120 .  
      Although the network printer  200  was described in this embodiment by way of an example, this should not be considered as limiting. The present general inventive concept can be applied to any network apparatus that is enabled to access to the network, such as a network multi function peripheral or a network scanner.  
      As described above, the network printer  200  can transmit to the user terminal  100 , which has requested the print job, the information on the web page displaying the solution to the error. Based on received information, the user can be informed of the kind of error, causes of the error, and the solution of the error. That is, the user can check the occurrence of the error without directly going to the place where the network printer  200  is located. Also, since the solution information to the error is provided, the time for correcting the error can be reduced. Accordingly, the efficiency of the network printer  200  and user&#39;s convenience can be improved.  
      Since the information on the error is provided from the manufacturer server that provides the information on the network image forming apparatus, the memory of the image forming apparatus can be efficiently used and most recently updated information can be always provided.  
      Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.