Patent ID: 7765248

Claim:
A composite apparatus formed by an image forming apparatus configured to form an image, comprising: an operation panel to provide an input/output interface and including an input part to receive a user input and a display part to display information to the user; a plurality of hardware resources, which include a scanner, a plotter, and a storage part, configured to form an image; a first application, within the composite apparatus, configured to execute a process related to a Web page or Web contents; and a service providing part, within the composite apparatus, configured to provide services, wherein said first application is configured to send a first processing request to a second application included in another apparatus, which is configured to send a second processing request related to the first processing request from the second application to the service providing part, said service providing part is configured to receive the second processing request related to the first processing request from the second application, to generate a first processing response based on a message included within the second processing request in accordance with a predetermined message transfer protocol, to return the first processing response to the second application, and to provide Web services corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of hardware resources, within the composite apparatus, depending on the second processing request, so as to expand functions of the services provided by the composite apparatus, based on the user input received by the operation panel, said first application is configured to send data, obtained by the scanner which scans a document in response to the second processing request, to the second application included in the other apparatus, to retrieve from the other apparatus the data that is managed in response to the first processing request, and to plot the retrieved data on the plotter, said first application is configured to receive a second processing response from the second application, and the operation panel displays the information based on the second processing response.