Patent ID: 7689731

Claim:
A method for exposing a supply state of a printing device over a network to a remote network resource, the method comprising: with a local network resource operatively coupled to the printing device, configuring the local network resource to share the printing device with the remote network resource according to a share protocol, the share protocol not allowing the remote network resource to directly query or otherwise access the supply state from the printing device; the local network resource determining if a print job directed to the printing device is a pseudo print job, the pseudo print job being a request to obtain supply state information that is masked as an otherwise regular print job; and if the print job is identified as a pseudo print job, obtaining, at the local network resource, supply state information from the printing device and storing a representation of the supply state information in a data repository that is accessible to the remote network resource according to the share protocol; and if the print job is not a pseudo print job, processing the print job so that it is printed by the printing device.