Patent ID: 8570577

Claim:
A planning device used in a system comprising a plurality of devices including a storage device for storing target data of a print target, a print device for performing a print of a target image represented by the target data, and the planning device for planning a procedure for causing the print device to perform the print of the target image, the planning device comprising: a memory configured to store, for each combination of two devices among the plurality of devices, communication information related to whether or not the two devices composing the combination are capable of directly communicating; a deciding unit configured to decide a specific communication path using the communication information in the memory, the specific communication path being a path capable of supplying print data acquired from the target data in the storage device to the print device, the print data having a data format which the print device is capable of interpreting; a generating unit configured to generate procedure data for instructing one or more devices which are present on the specific communication path to perform one or more processes sequentially for realizing the print of the target image; a sending unit configured to send the procedure data to a first device among the one or more devices, the first device being a device that is to perform a process performed first among the one or more processes; a first confirming unit configured to confirm whether or not the planning device is capable of directly communicating with each device in a first type of device group among the plurality of devices by sending a specific signal to the each device in the first type of device group and monitoring to receive a response signal; an acquiring unit configured to acquire, from each of one or more first type of devices among the first type of device group, information related to whether or not the first type of device and a different device are capable of directly communicating, the one or more first type of devices being devices that have been confirmed as capable of directly communicating with the planning device; and a storage controlling unit configured to cause the memory to store the communication information using a result of the confirmation performed by the confirming unit and the information acquired by the acquiring unit.