Job scheduling system for print processing

Details Job scheduling system for print processing Job scheduling system for print processing

1995-10-17

2001-04-10

Coles, Edward L. (Department: 2722)

Reexamination Certificate

active

06213652

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a job scheduling system which schedules job requests issued from a terminal equipment using a queue and requests a job execution section to carry out print processing by passing the jobs to the job execution section.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In the print processing executed by a conventional print processing system, a job scheduling device receives a job request delivered from a terminal equipment in a network, and this job is sent to a job execution section after the job request has been subjected to a predetermined scheduling operation, whereby print processing and conversion are executed. The job scheduling device sequentially stores print data, which forms the job request, and an aggregate of attribute groups of the print data (hereinafter referred to as a document) in the queue as one operation unit (hereinafter referred to as a job). The scheduling operation is carried out job by job. Hereinafter, such scheduling is called the scheduling of a one-job-multidocument.
When a user attempts to produce a plurality of outputs of jobs having the same contents, a corresponding number of job requests must be issued in a conventional job processing system. These jobs are handled as different jobs, and therefore output results corresponding to these job requests are mixed with output results for job requests from another user. It takes much time for the user to distinguish the user's output results from other results.
Although a plurality of jobs share the same print data, each of the jobs requires the print data when a plurality of job requests are issued. When the volume of data is large, an increased burden is imposed on a memory device such as a disk. Further, when a job includes documents which require conversion, conversion is executed job by job, thereby resulting in poor processing efficiency. Thus, the use of various resources becomes wasteful.
On the other hand, a job processing can be carried out using acceptance completion type sequential processing or non-acceptance completion type sequential processing. In the acceptance completion type sequential processing, a document processing request is not issued until all of the documents which form the job are received. In the non-acceptance completion type sequential processing, processing requests are issued in the order in which the documents are received. The non-acceptance completion type sequential processing is suitable for the case where a high-speed printer is used. The acceptance completion type sequential processing is suitable for the case where the collation and uncollation of a job are controlled. However, in the acceptance completion type sequential processing, it is necessary to wait the issue of a processing request until all of the documents are received, which in turn delays scheduling and renders the overall processing time longer.
The collation (collation is carried out) means that the pages of a document are collated and a specified number of documents are output, and the uncollation (collation is not carried out) means that a specified number of documents are output page by page.
An object of the present invention is to provide a job processing system capable of improving job processing efficiency when a plurality of jobs having the same contents are output.
In the case of the scheduling of the conventional one-job multidocument, the next job processing request is not issued to the job execution section until a job at the head end of a printer queue is completed. So long as a previous job remains in the queue, the next job processing request is not issued. For this reason, it is possible to easily perform a processing start wait operation, or a processing completion wait operation, and a password input wait operation by checking whether or not the job at the head end of the printer queue is designated for a processing start wait, a processing completion wait, or a password input wait.
The job execution section having high throughput can process a plurality of documents at one time. However, the job scheduling device can only issue a job processing request at limited timing, and hence it was sometimes impossible to effectively utilize the throughput of the job execution section.
FIG. 21
is an explanatory view showing the relationship between the state of a printer queue and a document which is processed by a job execution section. In
FIG. 21
, a job scheduling device (not shown) is interposed between a printer queue
5
and a job execution section
6
, and this job scheduling device schedules jobs. Jobs
1
to
4
are queued in the printer queue
5
. Processing request for all documents have already been issued with respect to a job
1
at the head end of the queue. On the other hand, the processing of the job shifts sequentially from step
1
to step
3
in the job execution section
6
.
For the jobs in the queue, a large circle at the top of each column represents a queue object of a job, and smaller circles following the large circle in each column represent queue objects of a document.
The job execution section
6
advances the processing of the document to step
2
when the processing at step
1
is completed, and informs the job scheduling device that it can accept a processing request. Upon receipt of the acknowledgement from the job execution section
6
, the job scheduling device issues a processing request to the job execution section
6
for a document subsequent to the currently completed job, and executes processing of step
1
. After the processing of step
3
has been completed, the job execution section
6
informs the job scheduling device of the completion of the processing of that document. The job scheduling device considers the processing of the document for which the acknowledgement has been issued to have been completed, and the job is moved to a terminate (completion) queue (not shown) after the processing of the final document of the job has been completed. The job scheduling device issues a processing request to the job execution section
6
with respect to the next job
2
at the head end of the printer queue
5
.
In some case, the job scheduling device cannot issue a document processing request to the job execution section
6
even when the job execution section
6
is liable to carry out processing, which results in an unprocessed document is in the printer queue
5
.
For example,
FIG. 21
shows that processing requests for all jobs have already been issued with respect to the job
1
, and that a job
1
-
4
, i.e., a document
4
of the job
1
, is being processed in the job execution section
6
. When the job
1
-
4
is shifted to step
2
after having been subjected to the processing at step
1
, it becomes possible to carry out the processing of step
1
. The job execution section
6
informs the job scheduling device that it can accept processing. However, the job scheduling device has not yet received the acknowledgement of the completion of the processing of jobs
1
-
2
,
1
-
3
, and
1
-
4
from the job execution section
6
. Accordingly, the job scheduling device can neither shift the job
1
from the head end of the printer queue
5
nor issue a processing request for a job
2
-
1
. In other words, in spite of the fact that the job execution section
6
informs the job scheduling device that it can accept processing, the job execution section
6
cannot receive a processing request for the job
2
-
1
from the job scheduling device until the processing of the job
1
-
4
is finished. Hence, the job execution section
6
is idle for a waiting time, and it takes a long time to execute job processing. As a result of this, even if the job execution section
6
can process a plurality of documents at one time, it becomes impossible to effectively utilize the throughput of the job execution section.
As previously mentioned, the job scheduling device controls jobs by checking whether or not a job at the head end of the printer queue
5
is set to the processing start wait, or the

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