Print Server Owner Name Acquisition for Cloud Printing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In cloud-based printing systems, users often require multiple user IDs for services and printers, leading to discrepancies between job owner names and user names, making it difficult to manage and track print jobs across different services.
Innovation Solution
A print server system that acquires and sets the owner name for print jobs based on user information, either from a designated user ID or an authentication server, ensuring consistency across multiple services and printers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If SSO authentication is implemented with separate user IDs for Web service and printer, then authentication security is improved, but job owner name consistency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an authentication server as an intermediary between the Web service and the printer. This server stores the correspondence between Web service user IDs and printer user IDs, and provides the appropriate printer user ID to the print server during print job generation. This mediator resolves the contradiction by enabling secure SSO authentication while maintaining job owner name consistency through centralized user ID mapping management.
2Reliability
If multiple user IDs are required for Web service and printer, then service security is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication server is designed to serve multiple functions: it performs SSO authentication, manages user ID correspondence between different services, and provides user information to the print server. This multi-functional design reduces overall system complexity by consolidating authentication and user management operations into a single universal server, eliminating the need for separate management mechanisms at each service point.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication server acts as a mediator that simplifies user ID management by centralizing the mapping between Web service user IDs and printer user IDs. Instead of requiring the print server to directly manage multiple user ID systems, the intermediary authentication server handles the complexity of user ID correspondence, reducing the operational burden on individual services.
3Adaptability or versatility
If printer manages print jobs independently without Web service integration, then printer autonomy is maintained, but job tracking accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication server serves as an intermediary that enables the print server to acquire accurate user information corresponding to the printer's user ID. This allows the printer to maintain its autonomous job management while the print server can accurately track and associate print jobs with the correct users through the authentication server's user ID mapping, thus preserving printer autonomy while improving job tracking accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A print server comprises: unit configured to acquire an owner name of a user for specifying the user in an output apparatus, the owner name being set in advance in correspondence with user information of the user who issues the print instruction in the print server and being to be set in a print job to be processed by the output apparatus; and unit configured to, when the acquisition unit has acquired the owner name, generate a print job in which the acquired owner name is set as an owner name of the print job, and when the owner name has been neither set nor acquired, generate a print job in which a user name designated in the user information of the user in the print server is set as the owner name of the print job.