System and method for controlling printing equipment through cloud end by using mobile network

[0042] The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

[0043] In this specification, adjectives such as first and second may only be used to distinguish one element or action from another without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order. Reference to an element or component or step (etc.) should not be construed as being limited to only one of the element, component, or step, but may be one or more of the element, component, or step, etc., where the circumstances permit.

[0044] In this specification, for the convenience of description, the sizes of the various parts shown in the drawings are not drawn according to the actual proportional relationship.

[0045] In this specification, a mobile network is, for example, a 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G network.

[0046] figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of a method of controlling a printing device through the cloud, including:

[0047] S11: The cloud server receives a print job sent by at least one mobile terminal through the mobile network, wherein the print job includes print control terminal identification information;

[0048] S12: The cloud server maps the corresponding print control terminal according to the print control terminal identification information, and sends the print job to the print control terminal to control printing.

[0049] Specifically, the printing control method is as follows: the printing control terminal saves the controllable printing devices in the list of available printing devices; Select a printing device in the device list, put the printing task in the print scheduling queue for queuing, and then drive the selected printing device to print.

[0050] Specifically, the printing device list includes at least one piece of printing device identification information and its corresponding printing configuration information.

[0051] Specifically, the printing task further includes printing requirement information, and after the printing control terminal obtains the printing task, it feeds back the printing configuration information selected according to the printing requirement information to the mobile terminal.

[0052] Specifically, the printing task also includes a printing task updated by the mobile terminal in response to the feedback information.

[0053] Wherein, the connection protocol between the cloud server and the printing control terminal or mobile terminal may be HTTP protocol, that is, a stateless, connectionless, one-way application layer protocol, which adopts a request/response model. The communication request can only be initiated by the client, and the server can respond to the request; web socket technology can also be used to allow full-duplex communication between the cloud server and the printing control terminal or mobile terminal, only need to establish a connection once, you can The connection status is always maintained, which can significantly improve work efficiency compared with the non-stop connection establishment method of the HTTP technology polling method.

[0054] Wherein, the printing configuration information includes related printing information such as paper size to be printed, black and white or color printing information, and the printing configuration information can be set at the printing device side, or can be set at the printing control terminal according to the printing content.

[0055] In addition, it should be noted that in some cases, the customer wants to print according to his own needs. At this time, the customer needs to embed the printing demand information in the printing task, and then let the printing control terminal perform the required printing operation.

[0056] However, in some cases, when the printing control terminal cannot meet the customer's printing demand information, the printing control terminal can send its automatically matched printing configuration information to the mobile terminal through the cloud server or mobile network. After the feedback information, if the customer is willing to accept the printing configuration result, then do not perform any operation to send the printing task to the cloud server. When the customer is unwilling to accept the printing configuration result, he can choose to update the printing task, and then update the The final printing task is sent to the cloud server. If the customer is still not satisfied with the feedback information received again, the above steps can be continued until the customer is satisfied.

[0057] It should be noted that the updating of the printing task by the customer may be the printing demand information updated according to the feedback result and its own needs, or the printing content to be printed updated according to the feedback result.

[0058] figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the system structure of controlling the printing device through the cloud. The system includes: a mobile terminal 21 , a cloud server 22 , a printing device 23 and a printing control terminal 24 .

[0059] A mobile terminal such as a PC, mobile phone or tablet establishes a connection with the cloud server, and sends the print job to the cloud server through the mobile network.

[0060] The cloud server is the cloud host provided by the network operator, such as Alibaba Cloud, Wild Dog Cloud, etc. The cloud server receives the printing tasks sent by the mobile terminal through the mobile network. The printing task includes identification information and printing content of the printing control terminal. The cloud server maps to the corresponding print control terminal according to the print control terminal identification information in the print job, and sends the print job to the corresponding print control terminal.

[0061] The printing control terminal includes but is not limited to a printing all-in-one machine or a computer or a customized Android device. The printing control terminal receives the printing task sent from the cloud server from the mobile network, and controls the printing device and printing configuration information in the list of available printing devices. to print.

[0062] The printing device is used for printing according to the control command sent by the printing control terminal.

[0063] The schematic structural diagram of the mobile terminal 21 is as image 3 shown. The mobile terminal includes: an establishment module 31 and a submission module 32 .

[0064] The establishment module 31 is used to establish a connection with the cloud server through the mobile network;

[0065] The submitting module 32 is used to submit the print job to the cloud server, wherein the print job also includes printing requirement information.

[0066] Among them, the establishment module enters the address of the cloud server in the browser, or obtains it by scanning the QR code or the corresponding link provided by the owner of the printing control terminal. After logging in, a connection can be established with the cloud server.

[0067] The printing task submitted by the submitting module includes the printing control terminal identification information and the printing content, wherein, the printing control terminal identification information can uniquely correspond to the printing control terminal in the cloud, and the identification information can be the IP address information of the printing control terminal, or can be It is the information set by the user, and then, by registering the information set by the local print control terminal on the cloud server, the print control terminal identification information in the print job can be uniquely mapped to the print control terminal corresponding to the identification information .

[0068] The print control terminal identification information may be input by the owner of the mobile terminal when submitting a print job, or it may be automatically embedded in the QR code or related links by the print control terminal owner. Likewise, the print content may be edited by the owner of the mobile terminal, or automatically generated by the owner of the print control terminal according to the information of the owner of the mobile terminal. For example, in the case of payment, the print content is the consumption bill automatically generated by the owner of the print control terminal according to the consumption situation of the owner of the mobile terminal, and the identification information of the print control terminal in the print job is corresponding to the print control terminal specified by the owner of the print control terminal. identification information. It should be noted that there may be more than one printing control terminal specified here.

[0069] In the actual operation process, when the number of specified printing control terminals is more than one, and the identification information of multiple printing control terminals is to be automatically embedded, the owner of the printing control terminal can schedule the multiple printing control terminals he owns as needed, specifically The scheduling method is not specifically limited here. For example, it can be scheduled according to the random principle; a certain priority can also be set. For example, when there are more than one printing control terminals, the printing tasks can be allocated according to the order of the printing tasks of the printing control terminals, or according to the number of printing control terminals connected. The number of printing devices is allocated, or it is allocated according to the combination of the former two. In this way, all printing resources can be fully utilized.

[0070] In addition, it should be noted that in some cases, the customer wants to print according to his own needs. At this time, the customer needs to embed the printing demand information in the printing task, and then let the printing control terminal perform the required printing operation.

[0071] The structure schematic diagram of printing control terminal 24 is as Figure 4 As mentioned above, the printing control terminal includes a connection module 41 , a storage module 42 , a scheduling module 43 and a control module 44 . in:

[0072] The connection module is used to connect with the cloud server through the mobile network;

[0073] The storage module is used to save the controllable printing device in the available printing device list, and the printing device list includes at least one printing device identification information and its corresponding printing configuration information;

[0074] The scheduling module is used to receive the printing task submitted by the cloud server, select the printing device in the list of available printing devices, and place the printing task in the printing scheduling queue for queuing.

[0075] The control module is used to control the printing device to print.

[0076] Among them, the connection module is connected to the cloud server through the mobile network, and the owner of the mobile terminal cannot directly control the printing device to perform printing operations, which solves the problem of potential safety hazards in the local area network environment where the mobile terminal and the print server are in the same local area network environment when the network is shared for printing.

[0077] It should be noted that there is no clear limit to the number of printing devices connected to the printing control terminal, that is, the number of printing devices connected to the printing control terminal may be any integer not less than zero.

[0078] The storage module is used to save the controllable printing devices into the list of available printing devices. The controllable printing devices referred to here include not only the printing devices connected by the printing control terminal through LAN or Bluetooth, but also the printing devices on the printing control terminal itself.

[0079] The printing device list referred to here includes at least one printing device identification information and its corresponding printing configuration information. Wherein, the printing configuration information may be set at the printing device side, or may be set at the printing control terminal.

[0080] Specifically, in the connection module and the establishment module, the connection protocol between the cloud server and the print control terminal and the mobile terminal may be the HTTP protocol, that is, a stateless, connectionless, one-way application layer protocol, which uses Based on the request/response model, the communication request can only be initiated by the client, and the server can respond to the request; websocket technology can also be used to allow full-duplex communication between the cloud server and the printing control terminal or mobile terminal. Once connected, the connection can be maintained all the time, which can significantly improve work efficiency compared with the HTTP technology polling method of continuously establishing connections.

[0081] In the scheduling module, the order of selecting printing devices in the list of available printing devices can be selected randomly, or can be set by the owner of the printing control terminal using a specific algorithm according to the actual situation, and no specific limitation is made here. For example, the print control terminal can select all the printing devices in the list of available printing devices and print a print task at the same time; it can also arrange the printing devices according to the number of printing tasks according to the usage of the printing devices in the list of available printing devices; Print to some certain printing devices in the list.

[0082] Among them, one scheduling method is: first obtain the printing configuration requirements required by the printing task, and then sequentially select the printing device that meets the printing configuration requirements from the printing devices connected to the printing control terminal through the USB interface, Bluetooth and local area network, if If a printing device meeting the printing configuration requirement is detected, the printing device is controlled to print, and if no printing device meeting the printing configuration requirement is found, a printing device is designated to print through the default printing configuration information. The printing configuration needs to include information such as paper size, front and back, color or black and white.

[0083] Another structural diagram of the print control terminal 24 is as Figure 5 As mentioned above, its structure also includes a feedback module 51 .

[0084] Wherein, the feedback module 51 is used for feeding back the printing configuration information selected according to the printing requirement information to the mobile terminal.

[0085] In some cases, when the printing control terminal cannot meet the customer's printing demand information, the printing control terminal can send its automatically matching printing configuration information to the mobile terminal through a cloud server or a mobile network.

[0086] For example, when the printing demand information embedded by the customer is double-sided color printing, if the printing control terminal determines that the printing device it controls cannot fulfill the above printing demand, and thus matches a default printing configuration information such as double-sided black and white printing, The printing control terminal feeds back the matched printing configuration information to the mobile terminal. In addition, for example, when the content of the file that the customer needs to print is very large, if the print control terminal determines that none of the printing devices controlled by it has enough paper to complete the printing job, the print control terminal can match the controlled printing device by default. The printing configuration information printed according to the serial number is then fed back to the mobile terminal. Of course, the default matching information is set by the owner of the print control terminal, and there is no restriction on the default method here.

[0087] Another structural diagram of the mobile terminal 21 is as Image 6 As mentioned above, its structure also includes an update module 61 .

[0088] The updating module is used for responding to the feedback information and updating the printing job.

[0089] That is, after the mobile terminal receives the feedback information sent by the printing control terminal, when the printing control terminal cannot meet the customer's printing demand information, the printing control terminal can send its automatically matched printing configuration through the cloud server or mobile network After receiving the feedback information, if the mobile terminal is willing to accept the printing configuration result, it will send the printing task to the cloud server without any operation. When the customer is unwilling to accept the printing configuration result, it can Choose to update the print task, and then send the updated print task to the cloud server. If the customer is still not satisfied with the feedback information received again, the above steps can be continued until satisfied.

[0090]It should be noted that, when the customer updates the printing task, it may be the printing demand information updated according to the feedback result and its own needs, or it may be the content information to be printed updated according to the feedback result. For example, when the customer needs double-sided color printing, and the feedback received is single-sided black and white printing, the customer can choose to accept the printing configuration without making any changes to the printing task, and the default printing control terminal controls the printing. The printing demand information can be modified according to the needs, such as modifying the printing demand information to double-sided black and white printing; in addition, when the content that the customer needs to print is too large, and the feedback information from the printing control terminal is that multiple printing devices need to be queued to work, the customer can Process the printed content according to requirements, such as dividing the printed content into several small parts for printing.

[0091] Wherein, setting the printing configuration information includes selecting the printing device specification, model, printing color attribute, paper size, number of available paper and other information from the built-in information of the printing device. The working process of the configuration module of the printing device is as follows: Figure 7 Shown:

[0092] S71: Display the built-in information list of the printing device (printing device model, specification, printing color attribute, paper size, etc.);

[0093] S72: Select required printing configuration information according to requirements (such as optional printing device model, optional printing device specification, printable color attributes, paper size, etc.)

[0094] S73: saving the selected printing configuration information;

[0095] Among them, since many printing devices can support output in multiple formats, users can set the printing devices on the printing device side according to their needs. For example, the printing devices that support color printing and black and white printing can be set as only Black and white printing is allowed. In addition, the user can also set the printing configuration on the printing control terminal according to the needs. For example, for a selected printing device, it can be set to black and white double-sided printing, etc. For example, when printing restaurant bills, the printing control terminal can set all The printing device is set to black and white single-sided printing, and the printing paper width is 80mm. It should be noted that these two setting methods may not have strict priority settings, and the user may set the priority of the two setting methods according to requirements.

[0096] Specifically, when a new printing device is connected to the printing control terminal, the printing device and the printing control terminal can be connected through a USB interface, or can be connected through Bluetooth or a local area network. An implementation of the process of updating the list of available printing devices is as follows Figure 8 Shown:

[0097] S81: start the print control terminal, and request to print device information;

[0098] S82: Detect whether there is a printing device connected to the printing control terminal via USB;

[0099] S83: If there is a USB-connected printing device, obtain the printing configuration information of the printing device according to the PID and VID, and set the PID and VID as the printing device identification information; if there is no printing configuration information, set the printing configuration information parameter black and white list Surface printing, the paper width is 80mm;

[0100] S84: If it does not exist, then continue to detect whether there is a printing device connected with the printing control terminal through bluetooth;

[0101] S85: If there is a printing device connected to the printing control terminal via Bluetooth, obtain the printing configuration information of the printing device according to the MAC address, and use the MAC address as the printing device identification information; if there is no printing configuration information, set the printing configuration information parameters Black and white single-sided printing, the paper width is 80mm;

[0102] S86: If it does not exist, continue to detect whether there is a printing device connected to the printing control terminal LAN network;

[0103] S87: If it exists, obtain the printing configuration information of the printing device according to the IP address, and use the IP address as the identification information of the printing device, if there is no printing configuration information, set the printing configuration information parameter black and white single-sided printing, and the paper width is 80mm ;

[0104] S88: Add the discovered printing device identification information and printing configuration information to the printable device list.

[0105] It should be noted that the full name of VID mentioned here is Vender ID, that is, the manufacturer's number. The full name of PID is Product ID, which is the internal product number of the manufacturer. Usually the VID and PID of the device are composed of a string of characters, such as: VID_05A9&PID_2800, "-" indicates the specific VID and PID values. The VID and PID values ​​are actually IDs used as unique identifiers when the USB device is connected to the Windows system. This ID can be used as the information of the device, and the driver that connects the device to the computer via USB depends on it. The 80mm mentioned here refers to the receipt paper with a width of 80mm.

[0106] That is, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the printing device list includes at least one printing device's identification information and its corresponding printing configuration information. This printing configuration information can be the default of the printing control terminal, or it can be configured on the printing device.

[0107] In this embodiment, the printing configuration information set at the printing device end is given priority, and only when the printing configuration information is not set at the printing device end, the printing configuration information corresponding to the printing device is set at the printing control terminal.

[0108] In this embodiment, there is no need to set a WIFI signal in the same network environment as the print server in the site, which ensures the security of printing information; in addition, there is no need to configure a print server in the site, and the printing control terminal is accurately allocated through the cloud server, and then indirectly controlled The printing device prints accurately; at the same time, the mobile terminal and the cloud server are connected through the mobile network, and the mobile terminal can print anytime and anywhere, and there is no restriction on the network location and physical location of the mobile terminal (printing client).

[0109] The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0110] Figure 9 It is a specific embodiment of issuing a KTV bill, including a client 91, a cloud server 92, a KTV cash register 93 and a printing device 94.

[0111] The client, that is, the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal can be the user's mobile phone, PC or tablet, which can be connected to the cloud server by scanning the QR code of KTV or the payment link, or it can be a handheld device provided by the merchant for ordering or paying. Connect to the cloud server by clicking the "Buy" button. The QR code or payment link of the KTV contains the IP information of the KTV cash register (print control terminal), which is the identification information of the print control terminal.

[0112] The cloud server receives the bill information (print task) requested by the mobile terminal, and extracts the IP information of the KTV cash register (print control terminal) from the print task, and maps it to the corresponding KTV cash register according to the IP information. Therefore, when performing this step, you first need to register the local KTV cash register information on the cloud server, and then the cloud server can map the corresponding KTV cash register according to the IP information in the print job.

[0113] The KTV cash register (printing control terminal) can control the printing device on the machine or the printing device in the local area network through the ESC/POS instruction set to print receipts. Specifically, if the owner of the mobile terminal is in the box, the cash register at the front desk can control the printing device in the box number to print the receipt according to the box number where the mobile terminal is located.

[0114] In addition, if the user is dining in a restaurant, after the user scans the payment link of the merchant with a mobile terminal and submits the order printing task, the cash register of the merchant can control any printing device connected to the cash register in the store to print the receipt, which is convenient fast.

[0115] In addition, when the user visits a large shopping mall, there may be situations where some stores need to go to the service desk to issue an invoice. At this time, using this solution, the user only needs to submit the printing task, and the invoice can be obtained at the printing device of the store. Printed receipts.

[0116] From the above description, it can be seen that the present invention uses the mobile terminal to send the printing task to the cloud server, and the cloud server maps the corresponding printing control terminal according to the received printing task, thereby controlling the printing device through the printing control terminal, Realized the purpose of the mobile terminal connected to the mobile network to control the local printing device through the cloud, thereby solving the technical problems of the existing site where the mobile terminal and the print server are in the same local area network. , to achieve the following technical effects:

[0117] (1) The mobile terminal only needs to connect to the mobile network to achieve the purpose of indirectly controlling the printing equipment in the place;

[0118] (2) The mobile terminal and the printing control terminal are connected through the mobile network, and there is no restriction on the network location and physical location of the mobile terminal;

[0119] (3) It is no longer necessary to configure a print server in the site, and the cloud server can accurately distribute printing tasks, saving network construction costs and enhancing network security.

[0120] So far, the present invention has been described in detail. Certain details well known in the art have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the inventive concept. Based on the above description, those skilled in the art can fully understand how to implement the technical solutions disclosed in the present invention.

[0121] The specific embodiments described above have further described the purpose, technical solutions and beneficial effects of the present invention in detail. It should be understood that the above descriptions are only specific embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Protection scope, within the spirit and principles of the present invention, any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc., shall be included in the protection scope of the present invention.