JP6366366B2 - Image forming apparatus, control method thereof, and computer program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a control method thereof, and a computer program.

  In a general printing method, printing is performed immediately by transmitting document data from a terminal device such as a PC to an image forming apparatus. In this case, the printed paper may be left unattended until the user goes to the image forming apparatus to pick up the printed material. Therefore, in recent years, a technique has been proposed in which printing is performed by the image forming apparatus after the user authenticates with the image forming apparatus, instead of immediately printing the document data when it is accepted (submission) in order to prevent the printed matter from being left unattended. (Authentication print).

  There is an increasing demand for sharing document data submitted as an authentication print with a specific group using this authentication print (group printing). Group printing enables printing of the document data by a user (group user) belonging to the group and prevents access to the document data by other users. This group printing can be realized by using the document storage function (box) of the image forming apparatus. For example, there is a method of sharing document data (shared document) in the box (shared box) by storing document data in the box, setting a password in the box, and sharing the password with the group user. As a shared document management method, Patent Document 1 proposes a technique for switching display for each user as to whether the shared document is unreferenced or referenced.

JP 2005-190414 A

However, the conventional example in which group printing is realized using a box has the following problems.
Since only the shared document stored in the shared box is displayed for all users in the group, the display cannot be switched for each user. For example, printed and unprinted displays cannot be switched for each shared document for each user.

When the technique of Patent Document 1 is applied, the above problems can be solved, but the following problems remain.
-If a user in a group deletes a shared document, other users cannot print.
If a user with a group changes the print setting of a shared document, the print setting is not desired by other users.

  An object of the image forming apparatus of the present invention is to provide appropriate shared document information for each user who shares a shared document even when an operation is performed on the shared document.

An image forming apparatus capable of registering document data according to an embodiment of the present invention associates shared document information for each user to be shared if the document data is a shared document when the document data registration request is received . Registration means for registering, and changing means for changing shared document information associated with the sharing target user in response to an operation on the shared document received from any of the sharing target users, the registration means Generates group information for the shared document and associates the shared document information with each individual information of the sharing target user, or generates group information for the shared document, and includes the group information in the generated group information. And registering the shared document information in association with each of the users to be shared, and when the change unit receives an operation to delete the shared document, Remove the shared document information associated with the shared object user went, shared document information associated with each of the shared object user deletes the group information when they are deleted.

  According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, even when an operation is performed on a shared document, it is possible to provide appropriate shared document information for each user who shares the shared document.

1 is a hardware block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the system configuration example of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of PC of one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the image forming apparatus in FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows an example of a user's document information list. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a printer driver authentication screen on a client. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an authentication screen in the image forming apparatus. FIG. It is an example of the screen which displays the document list | wrist input by the user after authentication. It is an example of the screen which displays the document list | wrist input by the user after authentication. It is an example of the screen which displays the document list | wrist input by the user after authentication. It is an example of the screen which displays the document list | wrist input by the user after authentication. It is an example of a database structure. It is an example of the database structure changed by operation with respect to a shared document. It is an example of a database structure when a print setting is changed. An example of another database structure is shown. It is a flowchart of a registration process of document data. It is a flowchart of the display process of the registered document. It is a flowchart of a printing process. It is a flowchart of the deletion process of a shared document. 6 is a flowchart of print setting change processing.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a hardware block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus of the present invention can accept registration requests from users and register document data of individual users or shared document data shared by a plurality of users. The image forming apparatus includes a controller unit 100, an operation unit 106, a scanner 108, and a printer 109. The controller unit 100 is a device that performs overall control of the image forming apparatus. The controller unit 100 includes a CPU 101, a RAM 102, a ROM 103, an HDD 104, an operation unit I / F 105, a device I / F 107, and a network I / F 110. Each device is connected to the system bus 111 and can transmit and receive data to and from each other. CPU, ROM, RAM, and HDD are abbreviations for Central Processing Unit, Read Only Memory, Random Access Memory, and Hard Disk Drive, respectively.

  The CPU 101 is an arithmetic device for controlling the entire system, and comprehensively controls each device connected to the system bus 111. A RAM 102 is a system work memory for operating the CPU 101, and is an image memory for temporarily storing image data. The RAM 102 also stores programs and data such as an operating system, system software, and application software. The ROM 103 stores a system boot program. The ROM 103 may store system programs and application programs, and may store information necessary for the image forming apparatus such as fonts.

  The HDD 104 stores an operating system, system software, application software, document data, image data, setting data, and the like. The program stored in the RAM 102 is executed by the CPU 101, and processes image data and data other than images stored in the RAM 102, the ROM 103, and the HDD 104. In addition, a small image forming apparatus may be provided with a hard diskless configuration by storing system software, application software, and the like in the ROM 103 without mounting the HDD 104. Alternatively, a configuration using a storage device other than a hard disk such as a flash memory such as an SSD (Solid State Disk) may be used instead of the HDD 104. The image forming apparatus control method of the present invention is realized by the CPU 101 executing a program stored in any of the storage devices.

  The operation unit 106 is connected to the operation unit I / F 105. The operation unit 106 includes a display device such as a touch panel, and notifies the user of a printing state such as printing or being printed via the display device. In addition, the operation unit 106 receives an instruction for operating the image forming apparatus via an operation button or the like displayed on the display device. A device I / F 107 connects the scanner 108 and printer 109, which are image input / output devices, to the controller unit 100, and inputs and outputs image data.

  Image data input from the scanner 108 via the device I / F 107 is stored in the RAM 102 or the HDD 104. The stored image data is subjected to image processing by the CPU 101 using an application program stored in the RAM 102 as necessary. When outputting image data, the image data is output to the printer 109 via the device I / F 107. A network I / F 110 is connected to a LAN and inputs / outputs document data, image data, or information for controlling an image forming apparatus of an external device on the network.

  Even if the configuration is not shown in FIG. 1, the configuration is not limited to that of FIG. 1 as long as the present invention is realized. For example, in the case of an image forming apparatus having a FAX function, an I / F for a modem apparatus not shown in FIG. 1 is provided in the controller unit 100 and is connected to a public line by a modem so that FAX transmission is performed. May be possible. In addition, in order to be able to read and print data stored in a flash memory card or the like, the controller unit 100 may include a USB I / F (not shown).

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of this embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the system includes a client PC 202 and image forming apparatuses 203, 204, 205, 206, and 207. Each device is connected to the LAN 201 and can transmit and receive data to and from each other. Hereinafter, an example in which printing is performed after user authentication will be described. The document data is input from the client PC in this embodiment, but may be a device other than the client PC (for example, a portable terminal or another image forming apparatus). When the user authenticates and logs in to the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatuses 203 to 207 acquire and display a list of documents that can be printed by the user. When the user selects a document from the displayed document list, the image forming apparatus causes the printer 109 to output the selected document data.

  Here, user authentication for the image forming apparatus will be described. The image forming apparatus 204 will be described as an example, but the same applies to other image forming apparatuses. The image forming apparatus 204 permits the operation after the user is authenticated in order to restrict the use to a specific user or to record the user's operation. For example, information related to authentication (user name and password of the user) is stored in the HDD 104 in the image forming apparatus 204 as a user database. Before using the image forming apparatus 204, an authentication screen is displayed on the operation unit 106, and the user is allowed to input a user name and a password.

  Alternatively, the image forming apparatus 204 may belong as a domain of an authentication system such as Microsoft's Active Directory. In this case, the image forming apparatus 204 does not have an internal user database, and inquires of an external authentication server on the network whether the user information input by the user is valid. Alternatively, the authentication may be performed using an IC card in which information necessary for authentication is stored.

  Even when the image forming apparatus 204 is used via the network, the image forming apparatus 204 requests authentication from the connection source, and permits the use only to the user whose authentication is confirmed. This is the case, for example, when connecting to the image forming apparatus via a browser or a file sharing protocol. The authentication technique in the image forming apparatus 204 uses a known technique and is not the essence of the present invention. When the user database is held in the HDD 104 in the image forming apparatus 204, the same user database is stored in each of the image forming apparatuses 203, 205, 206, and 207 so that all the image forming apparatuses can perform the same authentication. Must be kept synchronized. Since the synchronization mechanism of the user database is not the essence of the present invention, the description is omitted.

  FIG. 3 is an example of an internal configuration of a general information processing apparatus, and corresponds to the internal configuration of the client PC 202 in FIG. The information processing apparatus includes a CPU 302 to an image display device 307. Each device is connected to the main bus 301 and can transmit and receive data to and from each other.

  The CPU 302 controls the operation of the entire information processing apparatus. A RAM 303 provides a work area for the CPU 302. The ROM 304 stores system programs and application programs. The auxiliary storage device 305 is, for example, a hard disk, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a CD-ROM, or the like, and provides various programs. The input device 306 is a mouse, a keyboard, or the like, for example, and accepts an input operation by the user. The image display device 307 is a CRT display, a liquid crystal display, or the like, for example, and notifies the user of a message. The network I / F 308 transmits / receives data to / from other network devices via the LAN.

  FIG. 4 is an example of a functional block diagram of the image forming apparatus 204 in FIG. Hereinafter, the image forming apparatus 204 will be described as an example, but other image forming apparatuses have the same configuration. The image forming apparatus 204 includes a document data reception unit 401, a document data storage unit 402, a document information management unit 403, document information 404, a document display unit 405, a document printing unit 406, a document data deletion unit 407, an authentication unit 408, and group management. Part 409. Each processing unit shown here is realized by the CPU 101 executing a program stored in the image forming apparatus. Each processing unit will be described together with operations when group printing is executed from the PC to the image forming apparatus. The document information 404 may exist in an external server connected to the network. Since the operation when the document information is stored in the external server is not the essence of the present invention, the description is omitted.

In the following, details of group printing will be described for each phase.
[Input document data from PC]
An example is shown in which the user inputs document data to an arbitrary image forming apparatus that is authenticated and managed from the client PC 202, here, the image forming apparatus 204. In this embodiment, an example in which page description language (PDL) data is sent to the image forming apparatus 204 as document data will be described. PDL includes Canon LIPS, Adobe PostScript, and the like, and the image forming apparatus 204 interprets the PDL and performs printing. The document data may be other than PDL data. For example, any format that can be interpreted and printed by an image forming apparatus, such as image data such as TIFF or a document format of an application, may be used.

  The user activates the printer driver from the application program of the client PC 202. The user selects an arbitrary image forming apparatus from a printer driver screen (not shown) and instructs printing. When printing is instructed, a command (document data transmission start) is transmitted to the selected image forming apparatus 204. Upon receiving the command (document data transmission start), the authentication unit 408 of the image forming apparatus 204 requests authentication from the printer driver of the client PC.

  An example of an authentication screen displayed by the printer driver of the client PC 202 at this time is shown in FIG. On the authentication screen, a user name 701, a password 702, a group ID 703, a login button 704, and a clear button 705 are displayed. When the user inputs the user name 701, password 702, and group ID 703 and presses the login button 704, authentication information is transmitted from the client PC 202 to the image forming apparatus 204. Upon receiving the authentication information, the authentication unit 408 collates the user name and password, and if they match, transmits the use permission information to the client PC 202. The authentication unit 408 may transmit a command (transmission permission) as an alternative to transmitting use permission information. If they do not match, login with the client PC 202 results in an error.

  The client PC 202 that has received the command (transmission permission) after successful authentication converts the application data into PDL data. Next, the client PC 202 transmits print control information including print settings such as information on the user and double-sided printing and PDL data to the authenticated image forming apparatus 204. When data is shared, the client PC 202 transmits sharing target user information including each user name, group ID, and the like to the image forming apparatus 204. The authentication here may be authentication using authentication information in the image forming apparatus 204. In the case where the PC and the image forming apparatus 204 exist in the same authentication domain as in Active Directory and the authentication result of the client PC 202 is guaranteed, the user information of the PC may be included in the print control information. In that case, the image forming apparatus 204 does not perform authentication.

  In this embodiment, an example in which authentication is performed by the client PC 202 is described. However, when data is input from the client PC 202, authentication may not be performed and a user name at the client PC 202 may be included in the print control information. Even in this case, if the same user name as the user name is registered in the image forming apparatus 204, authentication is performed when the user uses the image forming apparatus 204, and printing is performed. Can prevent printing.

[Receiving document data in the image forming apparatus]
A description will be given of a process in which authentication is successful by [input document data from PC] in the authentication print, and the image forming apparatus receives and stores the PDL data from the PC 202. The image forming apparatus 204 will be described as an example. The interpretation of the PDL may be executed by the CPU 101 by a program stored in the ROM 103 or the HDD 104, or a dedicated PDL interpreter hardware may be prepared to interpret the PDL. Since the printer driver and PDL interpretation are not the essence of the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  As described above, PDL data generated by the printer driver of the client PC 202, and print control information including print settings for the PDL data and user information are sent to the image forming apparatus 204 via the LAN 201. In this embodiment, an example in which the PDL data and the print control information are sent separately will be described. However, the print control information may be included in the PDL data, or the document printing unit 406 may extract the print control information. In the image forming apparatus 204, the document data receiving unit 401 receives PDL data and print control information sent from the network I / F 110 connected to the LAN 201. The document data receiving unit 401 requests the received PDL data to be stored in the document data storage unit 402. The document data storage unit 402 stores the PDL data in the RAM 102 or the HDD 104 via the system bus 111.

  FIG. 5 is an example of a list of document information. The document information is managed by the document information management unit 403 as information on document data input for each user. The document information 500 shows a list of document information of the user Ginji, and the document information 510 is a list of document information of the user Buntaro. Each user's document information list includes document data input date / time 501, IP address 502 of the image forming apparatus in which the document data is stored, storage location 503 in which the document data is stored, document data name 504, print setting 505, A driver 506 and a group ID 507 are provided. If the group ID 507 exists, the document is a shared document. If the group ID 507 does not exist, the document data can be referred to only by the user. The document status 508 indicates the status of the document to be printed. When printing is executed, “printed” is stored.

[Document list display]
An example will be described in which a user authenticates in an image forming apparatus, logs in, and the document data input by the image forming apparatus is displayed as a list. In the image forming apparatus 204, it is assumed that the document data storage unit 402 functions effectively.

  Authentication is performed in order for the user to use the image forming apparatus 204. FIG. 7 is an example of an authentication screen of the image forming apparatus. On the authentication screen, a user name 601, a password 602, a domain 603, a login button 604, and a clear button 605 are displayed. The domain 603 is a field for selecting an authentication destination, and the selected authentication destination executes authentication. When the user inputs the user name 601 and password 602, selects the domain 603, and presses the login button 604, the user authentication process is executed. When the user presses the clear button 605, the image forming apparatus 204 clears the input contents of the user name 601 and the password 602 without executing the authentication process.

  When the login button 604 is pressed and login processing is executed, the input user name 601 and password 602 are sent to the authentication unit 408 via the operation unit I / F 105. The authentication unit 408 performs user authentication by checking whether there is a user name and password that match in the user database stored in the storage unit of the image forming apparatus 205.

  The authentication is not limited to this, and other authentication methods such as a non-contact type IC card may be used. Further, instead of having the authentication information locally, for example, authentication may be performed by an external authentication server, such as, for example, Active Directory. In such a case, the authentication unit 408 makes an inquiry to an external authentication server. Such authentication destination selection is performed by switching 603.

  When the authentication is successful in the image forming apparatus 204 and the user Ginji logs in, the document information management unit 403 generates a document information list (500) of the authenticated user from the document information 404 and passes it to the document display unit 405. In this embodiment, a list of document information is generated immediately after a user logs in, but may be generated by performing a specific operation after login.

  The document display unit 405 that has received the user's document information list displays the document list via the operation unit 106 of the image forming apparatus 204. FIG. 8A shows an example of a document list screen that can be referenced and printed only by the user Ginji. A display 801 indicates a user name. A display 802 displays the type of the document list and indicates that the document list is owned only by the user Ginji. A display 803 displays a list of documents input by the user Ginji, and three documents 804, 805, and 806 are displayed. In the example of FIG. 8, the document list displays the document name, print settings, and status. A document 804 indicates that the document name is AAA.txt, the print setting is 100 copies, and printing has been executed once or more. A document 805 indicates that the document name is BBB.pdf and the print setting is double-sided. Moreover, since there is no display in the state, it can be seen that printing has not been executed yet. The user can select the document by touching a line in the list.

  A print start button 807 is a button for starting printing, and when pressed, the document printing unit 406 prints the document selected in the document list 803. A delete button 808 is a button for deleting the selected document, and when pressed, the document data deleting unit 407 deletes the document selected in the document list 803. A display print setting button 809 is a button for setting print settings, and when pressed, the document display unit 405 displays a print setting screen (not shown) for the document selected in the document list 803. On the print setting screen, the print setting of the target document can be changed.

  FIG. 8B is an example of a document list screen of shared documents that can be referred to and printed by the user Ginji. A display 812 indicates that the document list 813 is a list of shared documents, and the group name is 2742. This display may be in a pull-down format so that other groups to which Ginji belongs can also be displayed. The example in FIG. 8B indicates that the document 814 is a shared document that can be referred to and printed by Ginji. The description of other displays is the same as that in FIG.

  FIG. 9A shows an example of a document list screen that can be referenced and printed only by the user Buntaro. Since other displays are the same as those in FIG. 8A, description thereof is omitted. FIG. 9B is an example of a document list screen of shared documents that can be referred to and printed by the user Buntaro. Ginji and Buntaro belong to the same group 2742, and the document 814 and the document 914 are the same document. Other displays are the same as those in FIG.

  FIG. 10A shows a document list screen displayed when the user Ginji prints the shared document CCC.doc of the group 2742. In the document list 1003 of the user Ginji, it is displayed that the document 1004 has been printed. FIG. 10B shows a document list screen displayed when the user Buntaro deletes the document 914 in the screen shown in FIG. 9B. In the document list 1013 of the user Buntaro, a shared document corresponding to the document 1004 is not displayed. That is, even if the user Buntaro deletes the document 914, the user Ginji can continue to display the shared document 1004 without being affected by the operations of other users.

  FIG. 11 is an example of a document list screen that is displayed when the user Buntaro changes the print setting of the shared document CCC.doc of the group 2742. In the document list 1113 of the user Buntaro shown in FIG. 11B, the print setting of the document 1114 is changed to 2 in 1 and 15 copies. On the other hand, in the document list 1103 of the user Ginji shown in FIG. 11A, a document 1104 that is a shared document corresponding to the document 1114 is displayed. However, the print settings of the document 1104 are 2 in 1 and 10 copies, which are shared documents, but the print settings are not changed. That is, the setting change of the shared document 1114 by the user Buntaro does not affect the shared document 1104 of the user Ginji.

  FIG. 12 shows an example of a database (user preference database) configuration in which document information is stored for each user. Data 1210 held by the user preference database 1200 is data (individual information) of the user Ginji. The child data 1211 is document information of the user Ginji. In the document information 1211, four documents are registered, and group information is registered for each print setting, status, and shared document. In the case of a shared document, identification information (group: 2742) for uniquely identifying the shared document is added.

  Data 1220 is data of user Buntaro. The child data 1221 is document information of the user Buntaro. In the document information 1221, three documents are registered. Similarly to the document information 1211, print settings, status, and group information are registered for shared documents. That is, as shown in FIG. 12, when the document data management unit 403 receives a document data registration request and the document data is a shared document, the document information management unit 403 registers the shared document information in association with each user to be shared.

  Data 1230 represents group 2742. A group 2742 is identification information for uniquely identifying a shared document. The child data 1231 is a member list, and 1232 is document information of documents submitted as a group 2742. The member list 1231 represents members belonging to the group 2742. In the example of FIG. 12, Ginji and Buntaro are members. That is, the document information management unit 403 generates group information for the shared document when registering the shared document data.

  One document is registered in the document information 1232, and print settings and a reference counter at the time of submission are registered. The reference counter indicates the number of referring members among the members of the group belonging to the group 2742. That is, at the time of submission, the number of users in the member list is an initial value (here, 2), and when a member deletes a shared document (here, CCC.doc), the reference counter becomes -1.

When the administrator instructs the Ginji and Buntaro users to belong to the group 2742 by the administrator, the document information management unit 403 performs the following processing in the case of FIG.
・ Create data 1230.
Create member list 1231 and register Ginji and Buntaro.
Create document information 1232
In the case of the database configuration shown in FIG. 15 described later, in addition to the above processing, the document information management unit 403 performs the following processing.
Register 2742 information in Ginji's group 1511.
・ Register 2742 information in Buntaro's group 1521.
Is done.

  FIG. 13 shows a configuration example of the database when the user Ginji prints the shared document CCC.doc at least once from the state of FIG. 12 and the user Buntaro deletes the shared document. In the shared document CCC.doc of user Ginji, the status is changed to printed. Further, the shared document CCC.doc is deleted from the document information 1321 of the user Buntaro. In the shared document CCC.doc of the group 1330, the reference counter is changed to 1.

  FIG. 14 shows a configuration example of the database when the user Buntaro changes the print setting of the shared document CCC.doc from 10 copies to 15 copies from the state of FIG. Although the print setting of the shared document CCC.doc of the user Buntaro has been changed to 15 copies, the print setting of the shared document CCC.doc of the user Ginji has not changed.

  FIG. 15 shows a database configuration example different from those shown in FIGS. The document information management unit 403 does not register the document information of the shared document in the user document information (data 1512 and 1522). The document information management unit 403 generates group information for the shared document, and registers the shared document information in association with each shared target user within the generated group information. Specifically, the document information management unit 403 registers the print setting and status of each user in the information (data 1533) of the shared document CCC.doc of the document information 1532 of the group 2742 (data 1535, 1536). The document information management unit 403 registers the information of the group to which the user belongs in the information of each user (data 1511 and 1521). The data 1534 is the same as the document information 1232 in FIG.

  16 to 20 are examples of flowcharts executed by the CPU 101 of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 16 is an example of a flowchart executed when a document is submitted as an authentication print. When a document is submitted, the document data storage unit 402 first stores the document data received by the document data reception unit 401 in step S1601. In step S1610, the document information management unit 403 determines whether the stored document is a shared document. If it is a shared document, the document information management unit 403 registers the document information in the document information 404 as a shared document (S1611).

  Next, when the document information management unit 403 determines that registration has been completed for the document information of all members (S1630), this flowchart ends (S1699). In order to register the document information of the users in the group, it is determined whether there are other users to be registered (S1630). If there is a user to be registered, the document information management unit 403 registers it as document information of the shared document in the document information of the user to be registered in the next S1631. If it is determined that registration has been completed for the document information of all members (S1630), the flowchart ends (S1699).

  If the document information management unit 403 determines in S1610 that the submitted document is not a shared document, the document information management unit 403 registers the document in the document information of the corresponding user (S1620). Thereafter, this flowchart ends (S1699).

  FIG. 17A is an example of a flowchart executed when a document list of a certain user is displayed on the operation unit 106 in the case where the document information has the configuration described in FIG. FIG. 17B is also an example of a flowchart executed when a user's document list is displayed in the same manner. FIG. 17B shows a case where the document information has the configuration described in FIGS.

  First, in S1701 of FIG. 17A, the document information management unit 403 extracts the document information of the corresponding user. In step S <b> 1710, the document information management unit 403 determines whether there is document information of an unacquired group for the group to which the user belongs. If there is document information of an unacquired group, the document information management unit 403 acquires document information from the user of the group in S1711. In the case of the database configuration shown in FIG. 15, when displaying the document list of the user Ginji, the document information is acquired from the document information 1512 in S1701.

  Next, in step S <b> 1710, the document information management unit 403 acquires the affiliation group 1511. Here, since the user Ginji belongs to the group 2742, the document information management unit 403 acquires the data 1535 of the member Ginji of the document information 1532. Thereafter, in S1720, the document information acquired by the document display unit 405 is sorted and displayed on the operation unit 106, and this flowchart ends (S1799). The explanation about sorting is not essential to the present invention and will be omitted.

  In S1751 of FIG. 17B, the document information management unit 403 extracts all the document information from the corresponding user's document information. In the example of FIG. 12, when the document list of the user Ginji is displayed, the document information management unit 403 acquires document information from the document information 1211 in S1751. Thereafter, in S1752, the document information acquired by the document display unit 405 is sorted and displayed on the operation unit 106, and this flowchart ends (S1799). The explanation about sorting is not essential to the present invention and will be omitted.

  FIG. 18 is an example of a flowchart for printing the authentication print. In step S1801, the document information management unit 403 updates the document designated by the user from the operation unit 106 to have been printed. In step S1802, the document printing unit 406 prints the designated document. If printing is successful, this flowchart ends (S1899). If printing fails, based on the printing result, the document information management unit 403 registers / updates information indicating that printing failed in the document information of the corresponding user (S1820), and then this flowchart ends (S1899).

  As described with reference to FIG. 18, when printing is successful, the state of the document information AAA.txt of the user Ginji is printed as shown in FIGS. In FIG. 12, when printing of the shared document CCC.doc of the user Ginji is executed, the document information management unit 403 changes only the shared document CCC.doc of the user Ginji to printed. As described above, even in the case of a shared document, the document information management unit 403 updates only the document information 1211 of the user Ginji in S1801 and S1820, and does not affect the document information 1221 of the user Buntaro.

  FIG. 19 is an example of a flowchart when an instruction to delete a document is given in the document list. In step S1901, the document information management unit 403 deletes the document information of the designated document. In step S1910, the document information management unit 403 determines whether the deleted document is a shared document. If the deleted document is not a shared document, this flowchart ends (S1999).

  If it is a shared document, the document information management unit 403 subtracts (-1) the reference counter held in the document information 1232 of the group document information (S1911). As a result, if the value of the reference counter becomes 0 (S1920), the document data deletion unit deletes the document data (S1921), and the document information management unit 403 deletes the document information from the group document information (S1922). . If the value is not 0 in S1920, this flowchart ends (1999).

  As described in FIG. 19, when the document is deleted, the shared document CCC.doc of the user Buntaro is deleted as shown in FIG. Although the document information of CCC.doc is deleted from the document information 1321, the document information of CCC.doc remains registered in the document information 1311 of the user Ginji. That is, even if Buntaro deletes the shared document, the document information of the user Ginji who is another member of the group is not affected.

  FIG. 20 is an example of a flowchart executed when a document setting is changed. When the user designates a document from the operation unit 106 and is instructed to change the setting of the document, the document information management unit 403 changes the print setting of the document information of the corresponding user in S2001. Thereafter, the document information management unit 403 ends this flowchart (S2099). When the print setting is changed as described in FIG. 20, the print setting is changed to 15 copies in the document information 1421 of the shared document CCC.doc of the user Buntaro as shown in FIG. However, in the document information 1411 of the shared document CCC.doc of the user Ginji, the print setting remains 10 copies. Thus, a user's setting change does not affect other users.

  As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, even when an operation is performed on a shared document, it is possible to provide appropriate shared document information for each user who shares the shared document. Therefore, the image forming apparatus of the present invention can display each shared document of the group to which each user belongs. Further, the influence on the display / operation of other users due to the operation on the shared document of each user can be eliminated.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (computer program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media. Then, the computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads out and executes the program. In this case, the program and the storage medium storing the program constitute the present invention.

202 Client PC
203 Image forming apparatus

Claims (8)

An image forming apparatus capable of registering document data,
If the document data is a shared document when the document data registration request is received , a registration unit that associates and registers shared document information for each sharing target user;
Changing means for changing shared document information associated with the sharing target user in response to an operation on the shared document received from any of the sharing target users ;
The registration unit generates group information for the shared document and associates the shared document information with each piece of individual information of the sharing target user, or generates group information for the shared document, and the generated Register the shared document information in association with each shared target user in the group information,
When the changing unit receives an operation for deleting the shared document, the changing unit deletes the shared document information associated with the sharing target user who performed the operation, and the shared document information associated with each sharing target user is An image forming apparatus , wherein the group information is deleted when all the information is deleted . A display unit that receives a request from the sharing target user and displays a list of document data registered by the registration unit on a screen;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit performs the list display using shared document information associated with a sharing target user who has made the request. The registration unit accepts the registration request including the shared document information including the document data, identification information for uniquely identifying the shared document, and sharing target user information from an external device, and uses the received information. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the registration is executed. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the operation on the shared document includes at least execution of printing, change of print settings, and deletion of the shared document. The change unit, when receiving an operation to execute the printing, updates shared document information associated with a sharing target user who has performed the operation as information indicating that printing has been performed. Item 5. The image forming apparatus according to Item 4 . When the change unit receives the print setting operation, the change unit changes the print setting of the shared document information associated with the sharing target user who performed the operation, and updates the shared document information. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4 or 5 . An image forming apparatus control method capable of registering document data,
If the document data is a shared document when the document data registration request is received , a registration step of associating and registering shared document information for each sharing target user;
Depending on the operation to the shared document received from one of the shared target user, possess the changing step, the changing the shared document information associated with the shared object user,
In the registration step, group information for the shared document is generated and the shared document information is associated with each individual information of the sharing target user, or group information for the shared document is generated, and the generation Shared document information is registered in association with each of the sharing target users in the group information,
In the changing step, when an operation for deleting the shared document is accepted, the shared document information associated with the sharing target user who performed the operation is deleted, and the shared document information associated with each sharing target user is A control method , wherein the group information is deleted when all the information is deleted . A computer program for causing a control method according to claim 7 to be executed by a computer.

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