Patent ID: 8760700

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a processor; a printing device; a scanner device; and a memory configured to store a plurality of applications executed by the processor, each of the plurality of applications providing an image forming process using at least one of the printing device and the scanner device, and each of the plurality of applications being capable of being added to the apparatus; and a platform program executed by the processor, the platform program configured to execute an image forming process using at least one of the printing device and the scanner device in response to receiving a request for performing the image forming process from one of the plurality of applications via a predetermined interface, wherein the platform program includes a first module executed by the processor and configured to generate a job based on the request received from the one of the plurality of applications, the first module configured to be shared by the plurality of applications via the predetermined interface; and a second module executed by the processor and configured to execute the job generated by the first module using at least one of the printing device and the scanner device.