Information processing apparatus, and control method and program for information processing apparatus

Abstract

To notify a user of detailed information arising in a printing device.SOLUTION: A program for causing a computer to function as an extended application for extending OS-standard printing software causes the computer to function as: a monitoring unit that acquires first management information from a printing device using an OS-standard protocol and causes a predetermined notification to be performed based on the acquired first management information; and a display control unit that, when a predetermined operation is performed in response to the predetermined notification, acquires second management information from the printing device using a protocol different from the OS-standard protocol and causes a display unit to display information related to the printing device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technique for controlling the display of information on a printing device. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, Windows® has been providing standard drivers that can be used with printing devices provided by multiple vendors. Such OS standard drivers (hereinafter also referred to as "OS standard printing software") are included in the OS package and can be used by connecting a host computer on which the OS is installed to any printing device.

[0003] There are known extension applications that extend the functions of such OS standard printing software. Patent Document 1 discloses a technology that provides an extension application to extend the function of reporting a printer error status. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2016-170631 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Depending on the type of extended application, the information that could be obtained using the OS's standard printing software was limited, and detailed information could not be provided.

[0006] The present invention aims to provide detailed information about what is occurring on a printing device. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] A program according to one embodiment of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to function as an extension application for extending OS standard printing software, and is characterized in that it causes the computer to function as a monitoring unit that acquires first management information from a printing device using an OS standard protocol and issues a specified notification based on the acquired first management information, and a display control unit that, when a specified operation is performed in response to the specified notification, acquires second management information from the printing device using a protocol different from the OS standard protocol and displays information related to the printing device on a display unit. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, it is possible to notify the user of detailed information occurring in the printing device. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the printing system. [Diagram 2] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a system configuration of the present invention; [Diagram 3] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the printing device monitoring unit. [Figure 4] 13 is an example of a toast that is displayed when an error occurs in a printing device. [Diagram 5] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the management information display unit. [Figure 6] 11A and 11B are diagrams showing examples of GUI display controlled by the management information display unit; [Figure 7] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the management information display unit. [Figure 8] 11A and 11B are diagrams showing examples of GUI display controlled by the management information display unit; DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention, and not all of the combinations of features described in the embodiments are necessarily essential to the solution of the present invention.

[0011] <Embodiment 1> The hardware configuration of the printing system of this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. In this figure, a host computer 101 is an example of an information processing device, and has an input interface 110, a CPU 111, a ROM 112, a RAM 113, an external storage device 114, an output interface 115, and an input / output interface 116. In addition, input devices such as a keyboard 118 or a pointing device 117 are connected to the input interface 110, and a display device such as a display unit 119 is connected to the output interface 115.

[0012] An initialization program is stored in the ROM 112, and application programs, an OS, print data generation software which is an OS standard driver (OS standard print software), and various other data are stored in the external storage device 114. The RAM 113 is used as a work memory etc. when various programs stored in the external storage device 114 are executed.

[0013] In this embodiment, the CPU 111 executes processes according to the procedures of the program stored in the ROM 112, thereby executing the functions of the host computer 101 described below and the processes related to the flowcharts described below. The printing device 102, which is a connected device, is connected to the host computer 101 via an input / output interface 116. Here, the host computer 101 and the printing device 102 are configured separately, but they may be configured as one information processing device. The printing device will be described as an inkjet printer that prints by ejecting ink onto a paper surface, but printing may be performed by other methods (for example, electrophotography). The host computer 101 may be a desktop personal computer, a smartphone, a notebook computer, or the like.

[0014] Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing system. Here, the description is based on the premise that the printing system uses a host computer 101 equipped with Microsoft (registered trademark) Windows (registered trademark) 10 as the OS. Fig. 2(a) is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing system of a comparative example that does not use an extended application as described in this embodiment. Fig. 2(b) is a diagram showing a schematic configuration in the case where an extended application 204 is associated with print data generation software 202 and a printing device 102.

[0015] First, Fig. 2(a) will be described. An application 201 is software that creates content to be printed, and corresponds to, for example, a drawing application such as a word processing application or a spreadsheet application. When the application 201 receives a print request from a user, it issues a print instruction to an OS (not shown). The print instruction includes print setting information for instructing the print data generation software 202 or the printing device 102 to perform an operation. The print setting information is also called a PrintTicket.

[0016] The application 201 can display and control a print setting screen provided by the print data generation software 202 or the OS. The print setting screen is configured to display configurable print functions and their setting values ​​according to print setting information determined by the print data generation software 202. The print data generation software 202 determines the print setting information based on print function information 203. The print setting information is also called PrintCapabilities. The print setting information is generated based on the print settings made by the user on the print setting screen.

[0017] The print capability information 203 describes all configurable print functions, their setting values, and the mutual exclusive relationships between the setting values. The print capability information 203 is also called PDC (Print Device Capabilities). The print capability information 203 is included in a configuration file of the print data generation software 202, and is arranged in the external storage device 114 as an unchangeable file. The print data generation software 202 can also dynamically generate the print capability information 203. For example, the print data generation software 202 or the OS can be configured to acquire function information that can be designated to the print device 102 from the print device 102, and generate the print capability information 203 according to the acquired function information. By configuring in this way, the print data generation software 202 can be configured so that the user can designate print functions available in each print device 102 according to the connected print device 102. That is, even when print devices with different functions or print devices developed by different vendors are connected, the print data generation software 202 can be configured so that the user can designate print functions available according to the connected print device. Here, a configuration using an IPP Class Driver installed in Windows (registered trademark) 10 as the print data generation software 202 will be described. The IPP Class Driver is a printer driver that executes print processing according to the specifications of a standard print protocol called IPP (Internet Print Protocol). The IPP Class Driver is not a printer driver for a specific printing device 102, but a standard driver that can be commonly used by multiple printing devices. The IPP Class Driver also acquires capability information of the connected printing device 102 so that the user can specify the print functions supported by the connected printing device 102, and generates print function information 203 based on that information.

[0018] The OS generates intermediate data (also called input data) based on a print instruction output from the application 201, and passes it to the print data generation software 202. The data output by the application for printing is data in Graphic Device Interface format (GDI format data) or data in XML Paper Specification format (XPS format data). When an IPP Class Driver is used as the print data generation software 202, the OS converts the GDI format data into XPS format data, and passes the converted XPS format data to the print data generation software 202. The print data generation software 202 converts the intermediate data into print data that can be interpreted by the printing device 102, and sends it to the printing device 102. The print data includes drawing data, which is information about a picture to be formed on paper, and print setting attribute information generated based on print setting information set by the user.

[0019] The printing device 102 prints on paper based on the print data sent from the print data generation software 202. At this time, the printing device 102 forms the drawing data included in the print data on paper in accordance with the print setting attribute information included in the print data. The print setting attribute information includes print quality (priority on image quality or priority on speed, etc.) and double-sided printing designation. For example, if the print setting attribute information includes a designation of double-sided printing, the printing device 102 executes double-sided printing.

[0020] Next, FIG. 2(b) will be described. Note that parts not specifically mentioned have the same configuration as FIG. 2(a). The extension application 204 is software that is not included in the OS in advance and operates under the control of the OS. The user can operate the host computer 101 to download the extension application 204 from a server (not shown) via a network, and install it. In addition, when the printing device 102 is connected to the host computer 101, the OS acquires device identification information from the printing device 102. The OS may acquire the extension application 204 corresponding to the acquired device identification information from a server (not shown) via a network, and install it.

[0021] The print data generation software 202 and the extension application 204 may be updated and upgraded, but these update processes may also be performed at different times. That is, the timing at which the host computer 101 acquires the print data generation software 202 may be different from the timing at which the extension application 204 is acquired. Also, the trigger at which the host computer 101 acquires the print data generation software 202 is different from the trigger at which the extension application 204 is acquired. When the extension application 204 is installed, the OS associates the extension application 204 with the print data generation software 202 and the printing device 102.

[0022] The extended application 204 described in this embodiment includes a print data editing unit 205, a printer monitoring unit 206, shared information 207, and a management information display unit 208. The print data editing unit 205 edits the print data generated by the print data generation software 202, and passes the edited print data to the OS. The printer monitoring unit 206 monitors whether an error has occurred in the printer 102 after the print data is sent. The shared information 207 is information commonly accessible from each unit, and is a file saved in the external storage device 114 or information stored in the RAM 113. The management information display unit 208 is a display control unit that includes a vendor-specific information control unit 209 and acquires vendor-specific information or transmits vendor-specific commands to the printer 102. Note that when each unit in the extended application communicates with each other, the communication is performed indirectly via the extended application 204.

[0023] The extension application 204 uses an API (Application Program Interface) provided by the OS to write and read information to the shared information 207. By providing the shared information 207 that can be commonly accessed by each unit, it is possible to prevent duplicate management of information and alleviate a capacity shortage in the external storage device 114 or RAM 113. The operation of the extension application 204 may be terminated each time the processing of each unit is completed. In that case, the OS will start the extension application 204 each time a request to use each unit is received. Also, for example, when the processing of the print data editing unit 205 is completed, the OS will terminate the operation of the extension application 204, but the OS may leave the extension application 204 running even after the processing of the printing device monitoring unit 206 is completed.

[0024] Next, the printing device 102 will be described. The printing device 102 holds management information. The management information includes information such as the number of an error occurring in the printing device 102, the remaining ink amount, the document name of a job being printed by the printing device 102, information indicating the status of the job, the owner name, the number of printed pages, or the URL of an ink purchasing site. The management information can be acquired by IPP communication using the printing device monitoring unit 206, or by communication using a unique protocol using the vendor-specific information control unit 209 provided in the management information display unit 208. In this embodiment, the management information that can be acquired by communication using an OS standard protocol using the printing device monitoring unit 206 is called first management information. Moreover, the management information that can be acquired by communication using a unique protocol using the vendor-specific information control unit 209 provided in the management information display unit 208 is called second management information. The difference between the contents of the first and second management information will be described later.

[0025] When an application 201 receives a print request from a user, it issues a print instruction to the OS. The print data generation software 202 that receives the instruction from the OS converts the intermediate data into print data that can be interpreted by the printing device 102. The OS passes the converted print data to a print data editing unit 205. Furthermore, the OS may be configured to pass print setting information included in the intermediate data to the print data editing unit 205.

[0026] The OS sends the print data edited by the print data editing unit 205 to the printing device 102. At that time, the OS starts the printing device monitoring unit 206, and after sending the print data, the printing device monitoring unit 206 monitors whether an error has occurred in the printing device 102. The printing device 102 prints on paper based on the print data sent from the print data generation software 202. If the printing device monitoring unit 206 detects an error such as paper out during printing, it causes the OS to issue a toast notification. A toast is a pop-up that appears temporarily at the edge of a display screen, and a toast notification is such a pop-up display. When a user clicks, double-clicks, hovers the mouse over, operates the keyboard, or touches the toast, the management information display unit 208 provided in the extension application 204 performs display control to display detailed information about the printing device 102. For example, the management information display unit 208 performs display control to display a GUI (described later in FIG. 6) on the display unit 119. This GUI will display more detailed information than the toast notification, which will be explained later.

[0027] Details of the processing flow of the printing device monitoring unit 206 will be described later with reference to Fig. 3. Details of the processing flow of the management information display unit 208 will be described later with reference to Fig. 5. Note that in this embodiment, the configuration of the extension application 204 is not limited to one having all of the above-mentioned functions, and may have only some of the functions or other functions.

[0028] As described above, the extension application 204 has at least one of the following functions: a function for displaying and controlling a setting screen; a function for editing intermediate data; a function for editing print data input to a printing device; and a function for extending functions that can be specified in the print data generation software.

[0029] Fig. 3 shows the processing flow of the printing device monitoring unit 206. When print data (print job) is sent to the printing device 102 via the print data editing unit 205, the OS starts up the printing device monitoring unit 206. The flowchart shown in Fig. 3 shows processing executed by the printing device monitoring unit 206 of the extension application 204. In other words, this is realized by the CPU 111 expanding the program of the extension application 204 stored in the ROM 112 into the RAM 113 and executing it. Note that the symbol "S" in the explanation of each process indicates a step in the flowchart, and the same applies to the flowcharts from Fig. 3 onwards.

[0030] In S31, the printing device monitoring unit 206 periodically obtains the first management information from the printing device 102 by, for example, a Get-Printer-Attributes Request, which is an IPP printer attribute obtainment request. Alternatively, the printing device monitoring unit 206 obtains the first management information from the printing device 102 by a Get-Job-Attributes Request, which is a job attribute obtainment request. Note that the printing device monitoring unit 206 is controlled by the OS so as to obtain the minimum necessary information, such as information indicating the job status. Therefore, for example, it is not possible to obtain detailed information, such as an error number occurring in the printing device 102, which the management information display unit 208 described below obtains using the vendor-specific information control unit 209.

[0031] In S32, the printing device monitoring unit 206 analyzes the first management information acquired in S31. That is, the printing device monitoring unit 206 analyzes the occurrence of an error in the printing device 102 from the first management information acquired in the Get-Printer-Attributes Request. The printing device monitoring unit 206 also analyzes the status of the job being executed in the printing device 102 from the information acquired in the Get-Job-Attributes Request.

[0032] In S33, the printing device monitoring unit 206 determines whether the job being executed by the printing device 102 has been completed based on the analysis result of S32. If it is determined that the job has been completed by the printing device 102, the monitoring process ends. If it is determined that the job has not been completed by the printing device 102, the process proceeds to S34.

[0033] In S34, the printing device monitoring unit 206 determines from the analysis result of S32 whether or not an error has occurred in the printing device 102. If it is determined that an error has occurred in the printing device 102, the process proceeds to S36. If it is determined that no error has occurred in the printing device 102, the process proceeds to S35.

[0034] In S35, the printing device monitoring unit 206 waits for a certain period of time and then proceeds to the process of S31. The waiting time may be a fixed time, or may be dynamically changed depending on, for example, the size of the job to be executed. In S36, the printing device monitoring unit 206 instructs the OS to perform a toast notification.

[0035] 4 shows an example of a toast notification sent by the OS when an error occurs in the printing device 102. The UI of the toast has a title bar 401 and a message display section 402. The title bar 401 displays the application name, printer name, or the like. The message display section 402 displays a message indicating the status of the printing device 102. The message display section 402 may provide guidance using BMP or animation. When the user performs a predetermined operation such as clicking on the message display section 402, the management information display unit 208 is started, and the user can see more detailed information about the printing device 102.

[0036] At this time, the printing device monitoring unit 206 acquires screen configuration information for the toast notification from the shared information 207. The screen configuration information for the toast notification held in the shared information 207 includes, for example, information such as the text to be notified, a bitmap, or an animation.

[0037] FIG. 5 shows a processing flow of the management information display unit 208 in the first embodiment. The flowchart shown in FIG. 5 is a process executed by the management information display unit 208 of the extension application 204. That is, the CPU 111 deploys the program of the extension application 204 stored in the ROM 112 in the RAM 113 and executes it, thereby realizing the process. Note that in this embodiment, the OS starts the management information display unit 208 by performing an operation such as clicking on the toast notified in S36 of FIG. 3. As described above, when the management information display unit 208 is started by the OS, it is configured to display a GUI including detailed information of the printing device 102 on the display unit 119. That is, during the processing of this flow, the management information display unit 208 is in a state of controlling the display of the GUI on the display unit 119 of the host computer 101.

[0038] In S51, the management information display unit 208 acquires second management information from the printing device 102. The second management information is information that the management information display unit 208 acquires from the printing device 102 using the vendor-specific information control unit 209. That is, the second management information is information that includes at least vendor-specific information that is not included in the first management information acquired in S32, such as an error number or a URL of an ink purchasing site. The second management information may include a part or all of the first management information. The vendor-specific information control unit 209 acquires the vendor-specific information using a unique protocol. At this time, in order to reduce the amount of communication, an inquiry may be made to the printing device 102 only about information that is not included in the first management information acquired in S31. When making an inquiry to the printing device 102 about information other than that acquired in S31, the first management information acquired in S31 is written out to the shared information 207, and the management information display unit 208 may determine information that is not included in that information.

[0039] In this embodiment, the vendor-specific information is acquired using a unique protocol, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the above-mentioned vendor-specific information may be defined as an extended attribute of the IPP protocol, which is a standard protocol for the OS. In this case, the vendor-specific information control unit 209 may acquire the vendor-specific information using a Get-Printer-Attributes Request, which is a printer attribute acquisition request of the IPP protocol.

[0040] In S52, the management information display unit 208 analyzes the second management information acquired in S51. That is, the management information display unit 208 analyzes information such as the number of the error occurring in the printing device 102, the amount of remaining ink, the document name of the job being printed by the printing device 102, the owner name, the number of pages to be printed, or the URL of the site where ink can be purchased.

[0041] In S53, the management information display unit 208 updates the GUI based on the information analyzed in S52. That is, it updates the contents of the GUI display controlled to be displayed on the display unit of the host computer 101. Note that in this flowchart, repeated processing may be performed, so the contents of the GUI display are described as being updated in S53, but in S53 immediately after the start of the flowchart in Fig. 5, processing for displaying in the GUI is performed. The management information display unit 208 obtains resources such as a message or bitmap (BMP) corresponding to the error number occurring in the printing device 102 from the shared information 207, and controls display on the GUI.

[0042] The contents of the GUI display are the information analyzed in S52 (information such as the number of the error occurring in the printing device 102, the remaining ink amount, the document name of the job being printed by the printing device 102, the owner name, the number of pages to be printed, or the URL of the site where ink is purchased). That is, compared to the toast notification described in FIG. 3, more detailed information can be notified to the user. For the user, even if the details of the error are difficult to grasp just by looking at the toast notification, the error contents can be grasped in more detail by checking the contents displayed in the GUI, so that the removal operation becomes easier. An example of the display of the GUI of the management information display unit 208 will be described in FIG. 6. Note that, in this embodiment, a message or a resource such as BMP corresponding to the error number to be displayed on the GUI of the management information display unit 208 is obtained from the shared information 207, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the management information display unit 208 may download screen configuration information stored in a specific server on the Internet and use it for GUI display.

[0043] In S54, the management information display unit 208 determines whether the job being executed by the printing device 102 has been completed from the analysis result of S52. In other words, it determines whether the error state has been cleared by a user operation or the like and printing has been performed normally. If it is determined that the job has been completed by the printing device 102, the process ends. The management information display unit 208 ends the GUI display when the process ends. Note that the GUI display does not have to end when the process ends. If it is determined that the job has not been completed by the printing device 102, the process proceeds to S55.

[0044] In S55, the management information display unit 208 waits for a certain period of time and then transitions to the process of S51. The waiting time may be a fixed time, or may be dynamically changed depending on, for example, the size of the job to be executed.

[0045] 5, for example, when an error occurs, the user clicks on the toast notification in FIG. 3, which causes the management information display unit 208 to display a GUI including information such as details of the error. When the cause of the error is eliminated by the user who has checked the GUI display, the printing device 102 resumes, for example, the interrupted print process. As a result, the second management information acquired by the management information display unit 208 in S51 and analyzed in S52 indicates that the job has been completed in the printing device 102, and the process of the flowchart in FIG. 5 (i.e., GUI display / update process) ends.

[0046] 6 shows an example of a GUI display that the management information display unit 208 displays on the display unit 119 of the host computer 101. The GUI of the management information display unit 208 has a title bar 601, a message display area 602, a WEB manual display button 603, a job information display area 604, an ink information display area 605, and an ink purchase button 606. As described above, the display of the GUI is based on the contents of the second management information acquired in S51.

[0047] The title bar 601 displays the application name or printer name, etc. The message display section 602 displays a message indicating the status of the printing device 102. For example, when an out-of-paper error occurs in the printing device 102, the error number, an explanation of the phenomenon, a method of resolving the error, and information about the type and size of paper to be set are displayed as a message. When the WEB manual display button 603 is pressed, the default browser of the system is started, and a page corresponding to the error number in the WEB manual created by the vendor can be displayed. On the page corresponding to the error number in the WEB manual, for example, video content can be viewed on the page on which the error is to be resolved, so that the user can resolve the error more intuitively. In this embodiment, an example is described in which the GUI in FIG. 6 is displayed when an error occurs in the printing device 102 and the user clicks on the toast notification in FIG. 3. However, as described later, the GUI display in FIG. 6 may also be displayed when no error occurs. When no error occurs in the printing device 102, the WEB manual display button 603 may be controlled not to be displayed on the screen, or the button may be grayed out and cannot be pressed.

[0048] A job information display unit 604 displays information about jobs being executed by the printing device 102. An ink information display unit 605 displays ink information about the printing device 102. When an ink purchase button 606 is pressed, the system's default browser is launched and an ink purchase page created by the vendor can be opened. The URL information of the ink purchase page differs for each model, and is included in the vendor-specific information acquired by the management information display unit 208.

[0049] As described above, according to this embodiment, by using the extended application of the OS standard driver, it is possible to notify the user of detailed information occurring in the printing device. More specifically, by using the management information display unit 208, it is possible to control the GUI display of information such as error information of the printing device, making it easier for the user to understand the status of the printing device. In addition, the extended application can also provide vendor-specific functions such as a link function to a web manual page corresponding to an error number occurring in the printing device 102, or a link function to a corresponding ink purchase page.

[0050] In this embodiment, the toast screen configuration information is acquired from the shared information 207, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the printing device monitoring unit 206 may download screen configuration information stored in a specific server on the Internet and use it for toast notification. Furthermore, the notification method does not need to be limited to toast, and for example, notification may be made to a timeline function supported by Windows 10 (registered trademark).

[0051] In addition, in this embodiment, the management information display unit 208 is started and controls the display of the GUI by clicking on the toast notified in S36 of Fig. 3, but the starting method or timing of displaying the GUI is not limited to this. For example, the management information display unit 208 may be started as a resident program in a state where the GUI is not displayed, and may control the display of the GUI when it is detected that printing has started on the printing device 102 or when an error has occurred.

[0052] <Embodiment 2> There are two types of errors that occur in the printing device 102: errors that can be cleared by directly operating the printing device 102, and errors that can be cleared by sending a control command to the printing device 102. For example, an error related to the printer cover being open is an error that can be cleared by directly operating the printer cover. On the other hand, an unadjusted head position error that occurs because head position adjustment has not been performed is an error that can be cleared by sending a control command for adjusting the head position from the host computer 101. For errors that can be cleared by sending a control command from the host computer 101, it is desirable to provide a function for issuing an error clear command when notifying the error on the management information display unit 208.

[0053] Therefore, in this embodiment, when the management information display unit 208 detects an error occurring in the printing device 102, if the error can be cleared by sending a control command, a system is described in which the error state is cleared by sending a control command.

[0054] Fig. 7 shows a processing flow of the management information display unit 208 in the embodiment 2. Note that S71 and S72 are the same processes as S51 and S52 in Fig. 5, and therefore a description thereof will be omitted.

[0055] In S73, the management information display unit 208 updates the GUI display based on the information analyzed in S72. The management information display unit 208 acquires a message corresponding to the error number occurring in the printing device 102 or a resource such as BMP from the shared information 207 and displays it on the GUI. An example of the GUI display of the management information display unit 208 at that time will be described in FIG. 8. Furthermore, if the error occurring in the printing device 102 is an error that can be cleared by a control command supported by the management information display unit 208, an error clear button 807, which will be described later, is displayed. The management information display unit 208 may determine from the error number whether the error can be cleared by a control command.

[0056] In S74, the management information display unit 208 determines whether the error occurring in the printing device 102 is an error that can be cleared by a control command supported by the management information display unit 208. In S74, the management information display unit does not determine that the error state has been cleared just because the host computer 101 has sent a control command to the printing device 102. When the printing device 102 receives a control command from the host computer 101, executes the received control command, and confirms that the error has been cleared, it determines in S74 that an error that can be cleared by a control command has not occurred. If it is determined that an error that can be cleared by a control command supported by the management information display unit 208 is occurring, the process proceeds to S76 and monitoring continues. If it is determined that there is no error that can be cleared by a control command supported by the management information display unit 208, the process proceeds to S75.

[0057] In S75, the management information display unit 208 determines from the analysis result of S72 whether the job being executed by the printing device 102 has been completed. If it is determined that the job has been completed by the printing device 102, the process ends. If it is determined that the job has not been completed by the printing device 102, the process proceeds to S76.

[0058] In S76, the management information display unit 208 waits for a certain period of time and then proceeds to the process of S71. The waiting time may be a fixed time, or may be dynamically changed depending on, for example, the size of the job to be executed.

[0059] 8 shows an example of a GUI display that the management information display unit 208 controls to display on the display unit 119 of the host computer 101 in the second embodiment. The GUI of the management information display unit 208 has a title bar 801, a message display section 802, a WEB manual display button 803, a job information display section 804, an ink information display section 805, an ink purchase button 806, and an error resolution button 807. Here, only the parts that differ from the GUI display shown in FIG. 6 will be described.

[0060] A message display unit 802 displays a message indicating the status of the printing device 102. For example, if a head position adjustment not yet performed error occurs in the printing device 102, a message is displayed including an error number, an explanation of the phenomenon, and an explanation of how to resolve the error.

[0061] When the error reset button 807 is pressed, an error state occurring in the printing device 102 can be reset. At this time, the management information display unit 208 generates an error reset command through the vendor specific information control unit 209 and transmits it to the printing device 102. The error reset command may be transmitted, for example, using a communication protocol such as HTTP, or a control command may be generated as a job and transmitted to a printing port. The management information display unit 208 may also start a default browser of the system, display a maintenance screen of a WEB browser built into the printing device 102, and reset the error from the WEB browser. The display name of the error reset button 807 may be changed according to the name of the control command to be transmitted, as shown in FIG. 8. When a control command is transmitted by pressing the error reset button 807, the management information display unit 208 continues monitoring processing until the error reset by the control command is completed.

[0062] In addition, in this embodiment, an error reset command is sent to the printing device 102 when the user presses the error reset button 807, but this is not limited to the configuration. For example, when a certain amount of time has elapsed after the management information display unit 208 detects an error occurring in the printing device 102, a command to reset the error state may be generated and sent to the printing device 102.

[0063] As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to provide the user with the functionality of notifying an error occurring in the printing device 102 using an application for extending the OS standard driver, as well as sending a control command for clearing the error state.

[0064] <Other embodiments> The present invention can also be realized by a process in which a program for implementing one or more of the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or device via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in a computer of the system or device read and execute the program. The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (e.g., ASIC) that implements one or more of the functions. [Explanation of symbols]

[0065] 102 Printing device 204 Extended Applications 205 Print Data Editing Unit 206 Printing device monitoring unit 208 Management information display unit

Claims

1. Computer, A program for causing the computer to function as an extension application for extending standard printing software of an OS, the program comprising: a monitoring unit that acquires first management information from the printing device using an OS standard protocol and causes the printing device to perform a predetermined notification based on the acquired first management information; a display control unit that, when a predetermined operation is performed in response to the predetermined notification, acquires second management information from the printing device using a protocol different from the OS standard protocol and displays information related to the printing device on a display unit; A program characterized by causing the program to function as a

2. 2. The program according to claim 1, wherein the OS standard protocol is IPP (Internet Print Protocol).

3. 3. The program according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays information indicating a state of the printing device as the information related to the printing device.

4. 4. The program according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring unit causes an OS to perform a toast notification as the predetermined notification.

5. 5. The program according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined operation is a click operation on the toast notification.

6. 6. The program according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit is activated by the predetermined operation as a trigger.

7. 6. The program according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit is activated in response to acquisition of a print job.

8. 8. The program according to claim 1, wherein the second management information includes information that is not included in the first management information acquired by the OS standard protocol.

9. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the display control unit obtains the second management information from the printing device by using a vendor-specific information control unit capable of communicating vendor-specific information.

10. 10. The program according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring unit is started in response to receiving a print job from the OS standard printing software.

11. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the display control unit determines whether a particular state of the printing device can be released by sending a command from the display control unit, and if it is determined that the particular state can be released, sends the command in response to a user's operation.

12. a monitoring unit that acquires first management information from the printing device using an OS standard protocol and causes the printing device to perform a predetermined notification based on the acquired first management information; a display control unit that, when a predetermined operation is performed in response to the predetermined notification, acquires second management information from the printing device using a protocol different from the OS standard protocol and displays information related to the printing device on a display unit; An information processing device comprising:

13. a monitoring step of acquiring first management information from the printing device using an OS standard protocol and making a predetermined notification based on the acquired first management information; a display control step of acquiring second management information from the printing device using a protocol different from the OS standard protocol and displaying information related to the printing device on a display unit when a predetermined operation is performed in response to the predetermined notification; 13. A method for controlling an information processing device, comprising:

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