Image forming apparatus, information setting system, and information setting method

Abstract

In an image forming apparatus, setting information is stored in a storage part for a function which the, image forming apparatus operates based on the setting information. An acquisition request of common setting information is sent to an information processing apparatus including the common setting information in common with multiple of the image forming apparatuses connected through a network. The common setting information is received from the information processing apparatus. The common setting information received by the receiving part is set in the setting information stored in the storage part.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention generally relates to an image forming apparatus, an image setting system, and an image setting method, in which setting information is updated.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Recently, since a number of functions included in an image forming apparatus has been increased, a number of setting items has been increased to operate the functions. Therefore, device settings have become complex to install anew function and to update applications in the image forming apparatus, and workload of an administrator has been increased.[0005]To solve the above described problem, a technology in which a setting operation is not required for each of image forming apparatuses has been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2008-72318 discloses a technology in which the server retains setting information for each of the image forming apparatuses, each of the image forming apparat...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an image forming apparatus, an information setting system, and an information setting method that can receive and use common setting information from an information processing apparatus through a network. This allows multiple image forming apparatuses to operate based on the same function without the need for each individual apparatus to store and update its own settings. This saves time and resources and ensures consistent settings across the multiple apparatuses.

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, device settings have become complex to install anew function and to update applications in the image forming apparatus, and workload of an administrator has been increased.

However, in the above describe technologies, since the setting information is retained for each of the devices, the workload of the administrator related to the setting information is increased when the number of the devices is increased.

Thus, great workload of the administrator is required to perform settings for each of the devices for each of the image forming apparatuses.

In a case of the push-type setting method, disadvantageously, if there are a large number of devices to be set, it takes time to apply the setting information.

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