Patent ID: 8332958

Claim:
An image forming system comprising: an image forming apparatus connected to a network; a server apparatus connected to the network; a client apparatus connected to the network and generating image output data from document data and transmitting the image output data to the server apparatus; and an authentication server apparatus connected to the network, including user authentication information and executing user authentication using the user authentication information; the server apparatus comprising: a first communication device connected to the network; a data reception unit configured to receive the image output data through the first communication device; a data management unit configured to store the image output data in a storage device; an authentication processing unit configured to receive user authentication information from the image forming apparatus or an electronic apparatus associated with the image forming apparatus, through the first communication device via the network, to transmit the user authentication information to the authentication server apparatus authenticating the user through the first communication device to receive a result of the user authentication from the authentication server apparatus through the first communication device, and to determine whether the user authentication information is validated by the result of the user authentication; and a data transmission unit configured, when the user authentication information is determined to be valid, to transmit a list of the image output data for a user associated with the user authentication information to the image forming apparatus through the first communication device, to receive a request for transmitting the image output data selected from the list based on a user operation from the age forming apparatus through the first communication device, and to transmit the requested image output data to the image forming apparatus through the first communication device: the image forming apparatus comprising: a second communication device connected to the network; an acquisition unit configured to acquire the user authentication information; and a control unit configured to transmit the user authentication information to the server apparatus through the second communication device, to receive the list of the image output data for the user from the server apparatus through the second communication device, to select the image output data from the list based on the user operation, to transmit the request for transmitting the selected image output data to the server apparatus through the second communication device, to receive the requested image output data from the server apparatus through the second communication device, and to execute a first image output process after determining whether the user authentication information has been validated and to execute a second image output process without determining whether the user authentication information is valid.