API Mount Condition Management for Image Forming Apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image forming apparatuses, such as Multi Function Peripherals (MFPs), face difficulties in managing and utilizing numerous APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) due to the complexity of selectively using different APIs for various functions, leading to challenges in determining the mount conditions and optimizing application operations.
Innovation Solution
An image forming apparatus with a public interface and a mount condition providing part that allows applications to check and manage the status of APIs, enabling control over operations and screen content based on mount conditions, thereby simplifying the handling of multiple APIs by grouping them into functional units.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If an application selectively uses APIs of different image forming apparatuses for each apparatus, then the application can be adapted to various apparatuses, but it becomes difficult to manage and use the APIs since there are several hundreds kinds of API
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large set of hundreds of APIs into multiple groups, where each group corresponds to a specific image forming apparatus type. This segmentation allows the application to interact with APIs in a organized manner through group identifiers rather than managing individual API specifications, thereby reducing complexity while maintaining adaptability across different apparatuses.
2Adaptability or versatility
If various applications are mounted to the composite apparatus and MFP, then the functionality is enhanced, but the complexity of determining mount conditions of numerous APIs increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments API mount conditions into groups corresponding to different image forming apparatus types. Each group contains mount condition information for APIs relevant to that apparatus, allowing the system to efficiently determine which APIs are available without evaluating all hundreds of APIs for every application, thus reducing the complexity of mount condition determination.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary organization of API mount conditions by apparatus type before applications need to use them. The mount condition information is pre-grouped and structured according to the type of image forming apparatus, so when an application is mounted, the system can quickly retrieve relevant mount conditions without performing complex real-time analysis of all available APIs.
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus including a plurality of programs of which an interface is open to public so that an application created according to the interface is executable. The image processing apparatus also determines the availability of a plurality of application program interfaces mounted at the image forming apparatus that are available to the application upon execution of the application. The operation of the application may then be affected by the available application program interfaces.