Patent ID: 8712954

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a central processing unit configured to execute functions of the image forming apparatus; an operation result output part configured to output a result of operation of a component; an operation result information creation part configured to create operation result information having identification character information regarding the result of operation of said component, the identification character information being determined based on said component or the result of operation of said component; a first identifier table in which the identification character information is associated with a first unique identifier and the result of operation of said component is associated with a second unique identifier; an operation result information conversion part configured to read the first identifier from said first identifier table and convert the operation result information by replacing at least the identification character information with the first identifier; an operation result information storage part configured to store the converted operation result information, and a first communication part configured to receive, from an external device, a request of sending all of the converted operation result information that belongs to a kind of the operation result information selected by a user at the external device; and an operation information sending part configured to read all the converted operation result information stored in said operation result information storage part of which identifier is coincident with an identifier of the identification character information contained in said sending request and send all the read converted operation result information that belongs to the kind of the operation result information selected by the user at the external device to said external device.