Print control device, print control method, and program

Abstract

To acquire a file to be printed even when a character string unsuitably URL-encoded is posted as a URL.SOLUTION: A print control device 100 includes: a posting acquisition unit 111 which acquires a first URL posted on a chat room; a file acquisition unit 112 which acquires a file; an encode processing unit 113 which encodes encodable characters; and a print control unit 115 which causes an image formation device to execute printing of the acquired file. The encode processing unit 113 encodes the encodable characters other than predetermined characters in a character string of the first URL. The file acquisition unit 112 acquires a file indicated by a second URL that the encodable characters other than the predetermined characters in the character string of the first URL are encoded.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a print control device, a print control method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, chat services in which messages and the like are posted have become widespread. Chatbots that respond to posts from users are also known. In the system disclosed in Patent Document 1, when a user posts a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for a file they wish to print in a chat, the chatbot retrieves the file based on the URL and performs processing to print the file. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-107128 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] According to the system disclosed in Patent Document 1, a file indicated by a posted URL is printed. However, when posting a URL to a chat, a character string that has not been properly URL encoded may be posted as the URL. In this case, the file to be printed cannot be obtained, and therefore printing cannot be performed, resulting in reduced convenience for the user. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The print control device according to the present disclosure includes a post acquisition unit that acquires a first URL posted to a chat room, a file acquisition unit that acquires a file, an encoding processing unit that encodes encodable characters, and a print control unit that causes an image forming device to print the acquired file, and when the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit, the encoding processing unit encodes encodable characters other than specified characters in the string of the first URL, and when the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, the file acquisition unit acquires a file indicated by a second URL in which encodable characters other than the specified characters in the string of the first URL have been encoded.

[0006] In addition, a printing control method according to the present disclosure includes obtaining a first URL posted in a chat room, obtaining a file, encoding encodable characters, and causing an image forming device to print the obtained file, and if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be obtained, encoding encodable characters other than specified characters in the string of the first URL, and if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be obtained, obtaining a file indicated by a second URL in which encodable characters other than the specified characters in the string of the first URL have been encoded.

[0007] In addition, the program disclosed herein causes a computer to execute a post acquisition step of acquiring a first URL posted to a chat room, a file acquisition step of acquiring a file, an encoding processing step of encoding encodable characters, and a print control step of causing an image forming device to print the acquired file, and in the encoding processing step, if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired in the file acquisition step, encodes encodable characters other than specified characters in the string of the first URL, and in the file acquisition step, if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, acquires a file indicated by a second URL in which encodable characters other than the specified characters in the string of the first URL have been encoded. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an information processing system according to an embodiment. [Diagram 2] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a print control device according to an embodiment; [Diagram 3] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a URL posted by a user to a chat room. [Figure 4A] FIG. 1 shows a URL for a certain file, the character string of the URL not being URL-encoded. [Figure 4B] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a URL posted in a chat room. [Figure 4C] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a processing result of a first encoding process. [Figure 4D] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a processing result of an encoding process according to the comparative example. [Figure 4E] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a character string obtained by decoding a URL that has been subjected to an encoding process according to a comparative example. [Figure 5A] FIG. 1 shows a URL for a certain file, the character string of the URL not being URL-encoded. [Figure 5B]FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a processing result of a first encoding process. [Figure 5C] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a character string obtained by decoding a result of the first encoding process. [Figure 5D] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a processing result of a second encoding process. [Figure 6] 4 is a sequence chart showing the flow of operations of the information processing system according to the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. For clarity of explanation, the following description and drawings are omitted and simplified as appropriate. In addition, in each drawing, the same elements are given the same reference numerals, and duplicate explanations are omitted as necessary.

[0010] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of an information processing system 10 according to an embodiment. In the example shown in Fig. 1, the information processing system 10 includes a terminal device 200, a chat server 300, a Web server 400, a print control device 100, and an image forming device 500. The terminal device 200, the chat server 300, the Web server 400, the print control device 100, and the image forming device 500 are connected to a network N such as the Internet.

[0011] In this embodiment, the terminal device 200 is communicatively connected to at least the chat server 300. The print control device 100 is communicatively connected to at least the chat server 300, the Web server 400, and the image forming device 500.

[0012] The terminal device 200 is a device operated by a user U, and is, for example, a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a personal computer, or the like. Application software (also called a chat app) for using a chat service provided by the chat server 300 is installed in the terminal device 200. The user U is a user who has an account for using the chat service, and the user U can use the chat service by using the terminal device 200. The account includes identification information for identifying the user and other information associated with the identification information. Specifically, for example, the account includes a password in addition to a user ID. In addition, a browser for viewing files on the Web server 400 may be installed in the terminal device 200. Note that, although one terminal device 200 and one user U are illustrated in FIG. 1, multiple users can use the information processing system 10. For this reason, the information processing system 10 can include multiple terminal devices 200.

[0013] Chat server 300 is a server that provides a chat service. Chat server 300 may be configured with multiple servers. In the chat service, members participating in the same chat room can chat with each other by posting messages in the chat room. A chat room is a virtual place where messages are exchanged between members. A chat room is also called a talk room, a channel, or a workspace.

[0014] The print control device 100 is a device that functions as a chatbot. Here, a chatbot is a software robot that receives data posted in a chat service and performs processing according to the data. The print control device 100 has an account for using the chat service, and participates as a member in a chat room in which the user U participates as a member. In this embodiment, the print control device 100 performs processing for causing the image forming device 500 to print a file specified in the post of the user U, as described below. The print control device 100 is, for example, a server, but is not limited to a server and may be any device having a function as a computer. The print control device 100 may be composed of multiple computers (multiple servers).

[0015] The web server 400 is a server that stores any file that can be printed. The web server 400 may be a cloud storage. In this embodiment, the print control device 100 acquires the file to be printed from the web server 400 by using a URL posted in a chat room.

[0016] The image forming device 500 is a device having a function of performing a printing process, and specifically, for example, a printer. The image forming device 500 is registered in advance in the print control device 100 as an image forming device to be used for printing. Although one image forming device 500 is illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of image forming devices 500 may be registered in the print control device 100 as image forming devices available for printing. For example, the image forming device 500 may be registered in the print control device 100 for each user U. In this embodiment, the print control device 100 causes the image forming device 500 associated with the account of the user U to print a file acquired based on a URL posted by the user U in a chat room.

[0017] Next, a specific configuration and processing of the print control device 100 will be described. Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the print control device 100. As shown in Fig. 2, the print control device 100 has a processor 110, a memory 130, and a network interface 150. In this way, the print control device 100 has the functions of a computer.

[0018] The network interface 150 is used for communicating over the network N. The network interface 150 may include, for example, a network interface card (NIC).

[0019] The memory 130 is configured, for example, by a combination of a volatile memory and a non-volatile memory. The memory 130 is used to store programs executed by the processor 110, data used in various processes, and the like.

[0020] The processor 110 reads and executes a program from the memory 130. In this way, the processor 110 realizes the functions of a post acquisition unit 111, a file acquisition unit 112, an encoding processing unit 113, a posting unit 114, and a print control unit 115, which will be described later. The processor 110 may be, for example, a microprocessor, an MPU (Micro Processor Unit), or a CPU (Central Processing Unit). The processor 110 may include multiple processors.

[0021] The program includes instructions (or software code) that, when loaded into a computer, cause the computer to perform one or more functions described in the embodiments. The program may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium or a tangible storage medium. By way of example and not limitation, the computer-readable medium or tangible storage medium includes random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, solid-state drive (SSD) or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disc (DVD), Blu-ray® disk or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassette, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage device. The program may be transmitted on a transitory computer-readable medium or communication medium. By way of example and not limitation, the transitory computer-readable medium or communication medium includes electrical, optical, acoustic, or other forms of propagated signals.

[0022] The post acquisition unit 111, the file acquisition unit 112, the encoding processing unit 113, the posting unit 114, and the print control unit 115 will be described below.

[0023] The post acquisition unit 111 acquires data posted by the user U to a chat room in which the print control device 100 as a chatbot participates. The data posted by the user U refers to data posted by the terminal device 200 to a chat room provided by the chat server 300 through the operation of the user U. The post acquisition unit 111 acquires data posted to the chat room from the chat server 300. More specifically, the post acquisition unit 111 acquires data posted to the chat room and identification information of the user U who posted the data from the chat server 300. In this embodiment, the user U posts the URL of a file present on the Web server 400 to print the file in the chat room. For this reason, in this embodiment, the post acquisition unit 111 acquires, in particular, the URL posted to the chat room. In the following description, the URL posted to the chat room will be referred to as the first URL.

[0024] The user U posts the URL of the file to be printed in the chat room, for example, by copying and pasting the URL displayed in any application software running on the terminal device 200. This application software (hereinafter, referred to as an app) is, for example, a browser, but may be software other than a browser. In this case, the user U performs an operation on the terminal device 200 to copy the URL displayed in the app running on the terminal device 200, and then performs an operation on the terminal device 200 to paste the copied URL in the chat room. The user U may also post the URL of the file to be printed in the chat room by instructing any app running on the terminal device 200 to share the URL. In this case, the user U performs an operation on the terminal device 200 to specify the URL to be shared, an operation to instruct to use the sharing function of the app running on the terminal device 200, and an operation to specify the chat room as the sharing destination. The user U may also post the URL of the file to be printed in the chat room by inputting a character string of the URL into the terminal device 200.

[0025] 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a URL 51 posted to a chat room 50 by a user U. In FIG. 3, the chat room 50 displayed on the terminal device 200 and the posted URL 51 are shown. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the post acquisition unit 111 acquires the posted URL 51 via the chat server 300.

[0026] The file acquisition unit 112 acquires a file to be printed based on the URL acquired by the post acquisition unit 111. Specifically, the file acquisition unit 112 acquires a file indicated by the URL acquired by the post acquisition unit 111 or a URL obtained by correcting a character string of the URL. In this embodiment, the file acquisition unit 112 acquires the file indicated by the URL from the Web server 400.

[0027] If the character string of the posted URL is a properly URL-encoded character string, the file acquisition unit 112 can acquire the file indicated by the URL represented by the posted character string. However, if the URL is posted by copy and paste, or if the URL is posted using the sharing function of an app, an event may occur in which the character string of the URL is posted in a state in which some or all of the characters that require URL encoding are not URL-encoded. This event is considered to occur due to the specifications of an app such as a browser. If the character string of the posted URL is not URL-encoded sufficiently, the domain name, path name, or file name obtained when this character string is URL-decoded is incorrect, and therefore it is not possible to acquire the file indicated by the URL consisting of this character string. In order to solve this problem, if the print control device 100 fails to acquire the file, it is sufficient to perform a process of URL-encoding the character string of the posted URL. However, if only some of the characters that require URL encoding are not URL-encoded, if all of the characters that can be URL-encoded in the character string of the posted URL are URL-encoded, characters may be URL-encoded twice. That is, if the character string of the posted URL contains characters that have already been URL encoded and characters that should not be URL encoded, the characters that have already been URL encoded are URL encoded twice. In this case, too, file acquisition fails. That is, the domain name, path name, or file name obtained when the character string of the doubly URL encoded URL is URL decoded is incorrect, and the file acquisition unit 112 cannot acquire the file to be printed. In this embodiment, this problem is solved. The following is a continued explanation of the components of the print control device 100.

[0028] The encoding unit 113 encodes characters that can be encoded. Specifically, the encoding unit 113 performs known URL encoding on characters that can be URL encoded. Specifically, the URL encoding may be, for example, percent encoding or the encoding defined in url-standard, 5. application / x-www-form-urlencoded.

[0029] In particular, when the file indicated by the URL acquired by the post acquisition unit 111, i.e., the first URL, cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit 112, the encoding processing unit 113 encodes characters that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters in the character string of the first URL. Hereinafter, this processing is also referred to as a first encoding processing. Moreover, a URL in which characters that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters in the character string of the first URL are encoded is referred to as a second URL. Moreover, the predetermined characters described above are referred to as encoding-withheld characters. Herein, the encoding-withheld characters (the above-mentioned predetermined characters) are characters that may become double-encoded when encoded. That is, the encoding-withheld characters are characters that may become double-URL-encoded when URL-encoded. More specifically, the encoding-withheld characters are characters that can be URL-encoded and that can also appear as URL-encoded characters. Note that the characters that can be URL-encoded can also be said to be characters for which character conversion for URL encoding is defined in the URL encoding rules. In this embodiment, specifically, the encoding reserve characters are two characters, "%" (half-width percent sign) and "+" (half-width plus sign). Note that, although only one of "%" and "+" may be used as the encoding reserve character, it is preferable to use both "%" and "+" as the encoding reserve character in order to properly obtain a file for any URL.

[0030] When such a first encoding process is performed, the encoding process is performed after excluding characters that may be double-encoded. Therefore, it is possible to prevent characters that have already been URL-encoded from being URL-encoded twice. Therefore, it is expected that a character string that has been properly URL-encoded can be obtained. When the first encoding process is performed, the file acquisition unit 112 attempts to acquire a file indicated by the second URL. If a character string that has been properly URL-encoded is obtained by the first encoding process, the file acquisition unit 112 succeeds in acquiring the file to be printed. Thus, in this embodiment, if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, the file acquisition unit 112 acquires the file indicated by the second URL. This makes it possible to properly acquire the file to be printed.

[0031] However, if the character excluded from the encoding target in the first encoding process is a character that has not yet been encoded, the encoding process is performed excluding the character to be encoded in the first encoding process. That is, if the first URL includes "%" or "+" that does not appear as a character after encoding of a certain character, the "%" or "+" is not URL encoded in the first encoding process. Therefore, the "%" or "+" remains in the second URL as a character that has not been encoded. In such a case, even if the second URL is decoded, a proper file name, etc. cannot be obtained, and the file acquisition unit 112 fails to acquire the file indicated by the second URL.

[0032] Therefore, when the file indicated by the second URL cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit 112, the encoding unit 113 encodes the encoding-withheld characters (the above-mentioned predetermined characters) in the character string of the second URL. That is, the encoding unit 113 encodes the encoding-withheld characters that were not subjected to the encoding process in the first encoding process. Hereinafter, this process is also referred to as the second encoding process. Moreover, the URL in which the encoding-withheld characters in the character string of the second URL are encoded is referred to as the third URL. As a result, in this embodiment, specifically, the "%" and "+" included in the second URL are URL-encoded by the second encoding process. However, in order to prevent the URL from being URL-encoded twice in the second encoding process, it is preferable that the encoding unit 113 operates as follows. In the second encoding process, it is preferable that the encoding unit 113 does not encode the encoding-withheld characters when a character string consisting of the encoding-withheld characters (the above-mentioned predetermined characters) included in the second URL and the characters following the encoding-withheld characters corresponds to a predetermined pattern. For example, in percent encoding, characters to be encoded by URL encoding are converted to characters such as "%XX" (where "X" represents a character used in hexadecimal notation). That is, the characters to be encoded are a character string pattern in which "%" is followed immediately by two characters used in hexadecimal notation (that is, any of "0" to "9" or any of "A" to "F"). Therefore, if such a character string pattern is also encoded in the second encoding process, double encoding occurs. Therefore, even if "%" is included in the second URL, if the character string consisting of the "%" and the characters following it corresponds to the "%XX" pattern, the encoding processing unit 113 does not URL encode the "%". In other words, if the "%" included in the second URL does not correspond to the "%XX" pattern, the encoding processing unit 113 does not URL encode the "%". In other words, in the second encoding process, if the "%" included in the second URL does not correspond to the "%XX" pattern, the encoding processing unit 113 URL encodes the "%".In this way, by limiting the encoding target of the second encoding process, it is possible to obtain the file more appropriately.

[0033] By performing the second encoding process, encoding process is performed on characters that were not encoded in the first encoding process. Therefore, even if the file cannot be acquired because the URL encoding of the character string in the second URL is insufficient, an appropriate URL for acquiring the file can be obtained. When the second encoding process is performed, the file acquisition unit 112 acquires the file indicated by the third URL. In this way, when the file indicated by the second URL cannot be acquired, the file acquisition unit 112 acquires the file indicated by the third URL in which the above-mentioned specific character in the character string of the second URL is encoded. This makes it possible to appropriately acquire the file to be printed.

[0034] The posting unit 114 posts data such as a message to a chat room in which the print control device 100 as a chatbot participates. Specifically, the posting unit 114 transmits the data to be posted to the chat server 300. In particular, when the file to be printed cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit 112, the posting unit 114 posts error information to the chat room. In this embodiment, when the acquisition of the file indicated by the third URL also fails, the posting unit 114 posts the error information. However, the posting unit 114 may also post error information when the acquisition of the file indicated by the first URL fails or when the acquisition of the file indicated by the second URL fails. Note that the posting unit 114 posts, for example, a message to notify the user U that the file cannot be acquired as the error information. By posting the error information in this manner, the user can grasp the occurrence of the error, and the user's convenience is improved.

[0035] Furthermore, when the file to be printed is acquired by the file acquisition unit 112, the posting unit 114 posts the file name of the acquired file in the chat room. By posting the acquired file name in this way, the user can know that the process is progressing appropriately, and user convenience is improved.

[0036] The print control unit 115 causes the image forming device 500 to print the file acquired by the file acquisition unit 112. The print control unit 115 causes the image forming device 500 associated with the user who posted the first URL to print the acquired file. Note that the print control unit 115 may cause the image forming device 500 to print via another device (e.g., a server) that manages or controls printing by the image forming device 500, rather than directly issuing a print instruction to the image forming device 500.

[0037] Next, a specific example of the encoding process of the encoding unit 113 will be described. FIG. 4A shows a character string of a URL for a certain file that has not been URL-encoded. The character string shown in FIG. 4A includes characters C1, C2, and C3 as characters that need to be URL-encoded. Specifically, C1 is a half-width space, C2 is a full-width space, and C3 is a character string expressed in kanji. FIG. 4B shows an example of a URL posted to a chat room (i.e., the above-mentioned first URL), in which only a part of the character string shown in FIG. 4A is URL-encoded. Specifically, only C1 and C2 shown in FIG. 4A are URL-encoded, and C3 is not URL-encoded. In FIG. 4B, E1 is a character obtained by URL-encoding C1, and E2 is a character string obtained by URL-encoding C2.

[0038] Assume that the post acquisition unit 111 acquires the URL shown in FIG. 4B. In this case, since the character string C3 is not URL encoded, the file acquisition unit 112 fails to acquire a file using the character string of the URL shown in FIG. 4B. Therefore, the encoding processing unit 113 performs URL encoding on the encodable characters other than the encoding pending characters "%" and "+" in the character string shown in FIG. 4B. As a result, the character string C3 is URL encoded into the character string E3, and the character string shown in FIG. 4C is obtained. In the character string shown in FIG. 4C, the character C1, the character C2, and the character string C3 are all properly URL encoded. Therefore, when the character string shown in FIG. 4C is decoded, the character string shown in FIG. 4A is obtained. Therefore, when the file acquisition unit 112 attempts to acquire a file using the character string shown in FIG. 4C, the file acquisition is successful.

[0039] In contrast, FIG. 4D shows a character string obtained when all encodable characters included in the character string shown in FIG. 4B are URL-encoded. In this case, not only is character string C3 URL-encoded to character string E3, but character E1 (i.e., "+") is URL-encoded again and converted to character string F1, and "%" included in character string E2 is URL-encoded again and converted to character string F2. When the character string shown in FIG. 4D is decoded, a character string shown in FIG. 4E is obtained. This is different from the character string shown in FIG. 4A. For this reason, file acquisition unit 112 fails to acquire the file. In contrast, in this embodiment, as described above, encoding processing is performed on characters other than the encoding pending characters, so that the character string shown in FIG. 4C is obtained and the file can be appropriately acquired.

[0040] Next, another specific example of the encoding process of the encoding unit 113 will be described. Fig. 5A shows a character string of a URL for a certain file that has not been URL encoded. The character string shown in Fig. 5A includes character C4 and character string C5 as characters that require URL encoding. Specifically, character C4 is a half-width plus sign, and character string C5 is a character string expressed in Kanji.

[0041] Here, it is assumed that the post acquisition unit 111 acquires the URL shown in Fig. 5A, which is a URL that has not been URL-encoded at all. In this case, because the character C4 and the character string C5 have not been URL-encoded, the file acquisition unit 112 fails to acquire a file using the character string of the URL shown in Fig. 5A. Therefore, as the first encoding process, the encoding processing unit 113 performs URL encoding on the characters that can be encoded in the character string shown in Fig. 5A, other than the encoding pending character "+". As a result, the character string C5 is URL-encoded to the character string E5, and the character string shown in Fig. 5B is obtained.

[0042] In the character string shown in FIG. 5B, the character C4 that needs to be URL-encoded is not URL-encoded, so the file acquisition unit 112 fails to acquire the file indicated by the character string in FIG. 5B. This is because when the character string shown in FIG. 5B is decoded, it becomes the URL shown in FIG. 5C, which is different from the URL shown in FIG. 5A. Therefore, the encoding unit 113 performs a second encoding process on the character string in FIG. 5B. Specifically, the encoding unit 113 performs URL encoding on the character C4 that was not the target of the encoding process in the first encoding process, among the character strings shown in FIG. 5B. Specifically, this process is performed by a character replacement process according to the encoding rule. As a result, the character C4 is URL-encoded into the character string E4, and the character string shown in FIG. 5D is obtained. In the character string shown in FIG. 5D, both the character C4 and the character string C5 are properly URL-encoded. Therefore, when the character string shown in FIG. 5D is decoded, the character string shown in FIG. 5A is obtained. Therefore, when the file acquisition unit 112 attempts to acquire a file using the character string shown in FIG. 5D, the file acquisition is successful.

[0043] 6 is a sequence chart showing the flow of operations of the information processing system 10. The flow of operations of the information processing system 10 will be described below with reference to FIG.

[0044] In step S100, the terminal device 200 posts the URL of the file to be printed in a chat room provided by the chat server 300 through an operation by the user U. In response, in step S101, the posting acquisition unit 111 of the print control device 100 acquires, from the chat server 300, the URL posted to the chat room.

[0045] Next, in step S102, the file acquisition unit 112 attempts to acquire the file indicated by the URL obtained in step S101. If the file can be acquired, that is, if the file acquisition is successful, the processes of steps S103 to S106 are performed. In step S103, the posting unit 114 of the print control device 100 posts the file name of the file acquired in step S102 to the chat room. As a result, in step S104, the file name is displayed on the terminal device 200. Also, in step S105, the print control unit 115 of the print control device 100 outputs a print command for the file acquired in step S102. As a result, in step S106, the file is printed by the image forming device 500.

[0046] If the file cannot be acquired in step S102, that is, if the file acquisition fails, the processes from step S107 onward are performed. In step S107, the encoding unit 113 of the print control device 100 performs the first encoding process described above on the URL acquired in step S101. That is, the encoding unit 113 encodes the characters that can be encoded in the character string of the URL acquired in step S101, other than the predetermined encoding pending characters. Then, in step S108, the file acquisition unit 112 of the print control device 100 attempts to acquire the file indicated by the URL acquired as a result of the process of step S107. If the file can be acquired, that is, if the file acquisition is successful, the processes from step S109 to step S112 are performed.

[0047] In step S109, posting unit 114 of print control device 100 posts the file name of the file acquired in step S108 to the chat room. As a result, in step S110, the file name is displayed on terminal device 200. Also, in step S111, print control unit 115 of print control device 100 outputs a print command for the file acquired in step S108. As a result, in step S112, the file is printed by image forming device 500.

[0048] If the file cannot be acquired in step S108, that is, if the file acquisition fails, the processes from step S113 onward are performed. In step S113, the encoding unit 113 of the print control device 100 performs the second encoding process described above on the URL obtained in step S107. That is, the encoding unit 113 encodes the encoding pending characters that were excluded from the encoding process in the first encoding process in step S107. Then, in step S114, the file acquisition unit 112 of the print control device 100 attempts to acquire the file indicated by the URL obtained as a result of the process in step S113. If the file can be acquired, that is, if the file acquisition is successful, the processes from step S115 to step S118 are performed.

[0049] In step S115, posting unit 114 of print control device 100 posts the file name of the file acquired in step S114 to the chat room. As a result, in step S116, the file name is displayed on terminal device 200. Also, in step S117, print control unit 115 of print control device 100 outputs a print command for the file acquired in step S114. As a result, in step S118, the file is printed by image forming device 500.

[0050] If the file cannot be acquired in step S114, that is, if the file acquisition fails, the processes of steps S119 and S120 are performed. In step S119, the posting unit 114 of the print control device 100 posts error information to the chat room. As a result, in step S120, the error information is displayed on the terminal device 200.

[0051] In the above-described sequence chart, when a file is acquired, print control unit 115 immediately causes image forming apparatus 500 to print the file, but it is also possible to wait for a print instruction from a user who has confirmed the acquired file name and then cause image forming apparatus 500 to print. That is, print control unit 115 may cause image forming apparatus 500 to print the acquired file when post acquisition unit 111 acquires a print instruction posted in a chat room after posting unit 114 posts a file name. In this way, the user can instruct printing to be performed after confirming the file name, improving user convenience.

[0052] The embodiment has been described above. According to this embodiment, when the file indicated by the posted URL cannot be acquired, the above-mentioned first encoding process is performed. Therefore, characters that may be double-encoded are removed and an appropriate encoding process is performed. Furthermore, when the file still cannot be acquired, a second encoding process is performed. As a result, encoding process is performed on characters that were not encoded in the first encoding process, and an appropriate URL for acquiring the file can be obtained. Thus, according to this embodiment, even if a character string that has not been appropriately URL-encoded is posted as a URL, the file to be printed can be acquired, improving user convenience.

[0053] Although the embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

[0054] A part or all of the above-described embodiments can be described as, but is not limited to, the following supplementary notes. (Appendix 1) a post acquisition unit that acquires a first URL posted to a chat room; A file acquisition unit for acquiring a file; an encoding unit that encodes encodable characters; a print control unit that causes an image forming apparatus to print the acquired file; having when the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit, the encoding processing unit encodes characters in the character string of the first URL that can be encoded, other than a predetermined character; When the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, the file acquisition unit acquires a file indicated by a second URL in which characters in a character string of the first URL that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters are encoded. Print control device. (Appendix 2) the encoding processing unit, when the file indicated by the second URL cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit, encodes the predetermined character in a character string of the second URL; When the file indicated by the second URL cannot be acquired, the file acquisition unit acquires a file indicated by a third URL in which the predetermined character in a character string of the second URL is encoded. 2. A printing control device as described in claim 1. (Appendix 3) The encoding processing unit does not encode the predetermined character when a character string consisting of the predetermined character and a character following the predetermined character matches a predetermined pattern. 3. A print control device as described in appendix 2. (Appendix 4) A posting unit that posts error information to the chat room when the file to be printed cannot be acquired. 4. A print control device according to claim 1, (Appendix 5) A posting unit that posts the name of the file to be printed in the chat room when the file to be printed is acquired. 5. A print control device according to claim 1, (Appendix 6) The print control unit causes the image forming apparatus to print the acquired file when the post acquisition unit acquires a print instruction posted in the chat room after the file name is posted. 6. A print control device as described in appendix 5. (Appendix 7) Obtaining a first URL posted to a chat room; Getting the files and Encoding an encodable character; and causing an image forming device to print the acquired file; and Including, If the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, encoding characters in the character string of the first URL that can be encoded other than a predetermined character; If the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, a file indicated by a second URL in which characters that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters in the character string of the first URL are encoded is acquired. Printing control method. (Appendix 8) a post acquisition step of acquiring a first URL posted to the chat room; a file acquisition step for acquiring a file; an encoding step for encoding encodable characters; a print control step of causing an image forming device to print the acquired file; Run the following on your computer: In the encoding process, if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired in the file acquisition step, encoding characters in the character string of the first URL that can be encoded other than a predetermined character, In the file acquisition step, if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, a file indicated by a second URL in which characters in the character string of the first URL that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters are encoded is acquired. program. [Explanation of symbols]

[0055] 10...information processing system, 50...chat room, 100...print control device, 110...processor, 111...post acquisition unit, 112...file acquisition unit, 113...encoding processing unit, 114...posting unit, 115...print control unit, 130...memory, 150...network interface, 200...terminal device, 300...chat server, 400...web server, 500...image forming device

Claims

1. a posting acquisition unit that acquires a first URL posted to a chat room; A file acquisition unit for acquiring a file; an encoding unit that encodes encodable characters; a print control unit that causes an image forming apparatus to print the acquired file; having when the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit, the encoding processing unit encodes characters in the character string of the first URL that can be encoded, other than predetermined characters; When the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, the file acquisition unit acquires a file indicated by a second URL in which characters that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters in a character string of the first URL are encoded. Print control device.

2. the encoding processing unit, when the file indicated by the second URL cannot be acquired by the file acquisition unit, encodes the predetermined character in a character string of the second URL; When the file indicated by the second URL cannot be acquired, the file acquisition unit acquires a file indicated by a third URL in which the predetermined character in a character string of the second URL is encoded. The print control device according to claim 1 .

3. The encoding processing unit does not encode the predetermined character when a character string consisting of the predetermined character and a character following the predetermined character matches a predetermined pattern. The print control device according to claim 2 .

4. A posting unit that posts error information to the chat room when the file to be printed cannot be acquired. The print control device according to claim 1 .

5. A posting unit that posts the name of the file to be printed in the chat room when the file to be printed is acquired. The print control device according to claim 1 .

6. The print control unit causes the image forming apparatus to print the acquired file when the post acquisition unit acquires a print instruction posted in the chat room after the file name is posted. The print control device according to claim 5 .

7. Obtaining a first URL posted to a chat room; Getting the files and Encoding an encodable character; and causing an image forming device to print the acquired file; and Including, If the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, encoding characters that can be encoded other than a predetermined character in the character string of the first URL; If the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, a file indicated by a second URL in which characters that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters in the character string of the first URL are encoded is acquired. Printing control method.

8. a posting acquisition step of acquiring a first URL posted to the chat room; a file acquisition step for acquiring a file; an encoding step for encoding encodable characters; a print control step of causing an image forming device to print the acquired file; Run the following on your computer: In the encoding process, if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired in the file acquisition step, an encodable character other than a predetermined character in the character string of the first URL is encoded; In the file acquisition step, if the file indicated by the first URL cannot be acquired, a file indicated by a second URL in which characters that can be encoded other than the predetermined characters in the character string of the first URL are encoded is acquired. program.

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