Image Forming Apparatus and Image Forming System

Abstract

An image forming apparatus contains: an internal device that performs a service; a message processing unit that parses a message according to service definition data, the service definition data including syntax definitions of an interface part of the service and designation of a protocol to be used for the service; and a control unit that controls the internal device according to a request obtained from a result of parsing the message by the message processing unit in order to execute the service.

1 . An image forming apparatus that performs one or more services according to a request, comprising:
 an internal device that performs a service;   a message processing unit that parses a message according to service definition data, the service definition data including (a)syntax definitions of an interface part of the service and (b)designation of a protocol to be used for the service; and   a control unit that controls the internal device according to a request obtained from a result of parsing the message by the message processing unit in order to perform the service.   
     
     
         2 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 1  further comprising: a receiving unit that receives the message via a computer network according to a communication protocol, wherein the message processing unit parses the message received by the receiving unit. 
     
     
         3 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the message processing unit generates a message indicating a result of the service according to the service definition data. 
     
     
         4 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 3  further comprising:
 a receiving unit that receives a message via a computer network according to a communication protocol, and   a transmitting unit that transmits a message via the computer network;   wherein the message processing unit parses a message received by the receiving unit, the message processing unit generates a message indicating a result of the service performed according to a request obtained from a result of parsing the message received by the receiving unit, and the transmitting unit transmits the message generated by the message processing unit.   
     
     
         5 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein the protocol designated in the service definition data is SOAP, the receiving unit receives the message according to HTTP, and the transmitting unit transmits the message according to HTTP. 
     
     
         6 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the service definition data is XML data described in WSDL. 
     
     
         7 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the service definition data includes schema data, the schema data includes syntax definitions of the message to be received or transmitted, and the message processing unit parses the message according to the service definition data and the schema data. 
     
     
         8 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the service definition data includes a reference to schema data, and the message processing unit reads out the schema data with the reference and parses the message according to the service definition data and the schema data. 
     
     
         9 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 7 , wherein the service definition data is XML data described in WSDL, and the schema data is XML data described in XML Schema. 
     
     
         10 . An image forming system comprising:
 a terminal device connected to a computer network, and an image forming apparatus that is connected to the computer network and performs one or more services according to a request that occurs in the terminal device;   wherein the image forming apparatus comprises:
 a receiving unit that receives a request message via the computer network according to a communication protocol; 
 an internal device that performs the one or more services; 
 a message processing unit that parses the request message according to service definition data and schema data, the service definition data including (a) syntax definitions of an interface part of the service and (b) designation of a protocol to be used for the service, the schema data including syntax definitions of the message; and 
 a control unit that controls the internal device according to a request obtained from a result of parsing the request message by the message processing unit in order to perform the service; and 
   the terminal device obtains the service definition data and/or the schema data from the image forming apparatus, generates and transmits the request message to the image forming apparatus according to the service definition data and/or the schema data.   
     
     
         11 . The image forming system according to  claim 10 , wherein the terminal device distills permissible values of a parameter from the service definition data and/or the schema data, selects one of the permissible values as a value of the parameter, and generates the request message including the value of the parameter. 
     
     
         12 . The image forming system according to  claim 10 , wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises a transmitting unit that transmits a message via the computer network according to the communication protocol;
 wherein the message processing unit of the image forming apparatus generates a response message indicating a result of the service performed according to a request obtained from a result of parsing the request message received by the receiving unit, and the transmitting unit of the image forming apparatus transmits the response message generated by the message processing unit, and the terminal device receives the response message.   
     
     
         13 . The image forming system according to  claim 12 , wherein the protocol designated in the service definition data is SOAP, the receiving unit receives the message according to HTTP, and the transmitting unit transmits the message according to HTTP. 
     
     
         14 . The image forming system according to  claim 10 , wherein the service definition data is XML data described in WSDL, and the schema data is XML data described in XML Schema. 
     
     
         15 . The image forming system according to  claim 10 , wherein the service definition data includes schema data, the schema data includes syntax definitions of the message to be received or transmitted, and the message processing unit parses the message according to the service definition data and the schema data. 
     
     
         16 . The image forming system according to  claim 10 , wherein the service definition data includes a reference to schema data, and the message processing unit reads out the schema data with the reference and parses the message according to the service definition data and the schema data. 
     
     
         17 . The image forming system according to  claim 15 , wherein the service definition data is XML data described in WSDL, and the schema data is XML data described in XML Schema. 
     
     
         18 . An image forming apparatus comprising:
 a display device that displays a user interface screen;   a data storage device that stores user interface data containing attributions of components in the user interface screen, the user interface data described as text data; and   a UI data parsing unit that identifies attributions of the components with parsing the user interface data, and causes the display device to display the user interface screen that reflects the attributions of the components.   
     
     
         19 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 18  further comprising:
 a message processing unit that parses a message according to service definition data, the service definition data including (a) syntax definitions of an interface part of an editing service of the user interface data and (b) designation of a protocol to be used for the service; and   a control unit that performs the editing service according to a request obtained from a result of parsing the message by the message processing unit.   
     
     
         20 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 19  further comprising a receiving unit that receives the message via a computer network according to a communication protocol, wherein the message processing unit parses the message received by the receiving unit. 
     
     
         21 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 20 , wherein the protocol designated in the service definition data is SOAP, and the receiving unit receives the message according to HTTP. 
     
     
         22 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 19 , wherein the service definition data is XML data described in WSDL. 
     
     
         23 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 19 , wherein the service definition data includes schema data, the schema data includes syntax definitions of the message to be received or transmitted, and the message processing unit parses the message according to the service definition data and the schema data. 
     
     
         24 . The image forming apparatus according to  claim 19 , wherein the user interface data and the message are described in XML, and the control unit updates the user interface data with an XML text of the attributions of the components distilled by the message processing unit. 
     
     
         25 . An image forming system comprising:
 an image forming apparatus connected to a computer network, and   a terminal device connected to the computer network;   wherein the image forming apparatus comprises:
 a display device that displays a user interface screen; 
 a data storage device that stores user interface data containing attributions of components in the user interface screen, the user interface data described as text data; 
 a UI data parsing unit that identifies attributions of the components with parsing the user interface data, and causes the display device to display the user interface screen that reflects the attributions of the components; 
 a receiving unit that receives the message via the computer network according to a communication protocol; 
 a message processing unit that parses a message according to service definition data, the service definition data including (a) syntax definitions of an interface part of an editing service of the user interface data and (b) designation of a protocol to be used for the service; and 
 a control unit that performs the editing service according to a request obtained from a result of parsing the message by the message processing unit; and 
   the terminal device comprises a transmitting unit that transmits the message via the computer network according to a communication protocol.   
     
     
         26 . The image forming system according to  claim 25 , wherein the data storage device stores schema data including syntax definitions of the message,
 the terminal device further comprises a schema data obtaining unit that obtains a part or all of the schema data from the image forming apparatus and identifies one or more items in the attributions of the components with the part or all of the schema data, and   the transmitting unit transmits the message to set one or more values to a part or all of the one or more items identified by the schema data obtaining unit.   
     
     
         27 . The image forming system according to  claim 25 , wherein the data storage device stores schema data including syntax definitions of the message,
 the terminal device further comprises a schema data obtaining unit that obtains a part or all of the schema data from the image forming apparatus and identifies one or more permissible values on the attributions of the components with the part or all of the schema data, and   the transmitting unit transmits the message to set a value selected from the one or more permissible values to one of the attributions.   
     
     
         28 . The image forming system according to  claim 26 , wherein the user interface data and the message are described in XML, the schema data is described in XML Schema, and the control unit updates the user interface data with an XML text of the attributions of the components distilled by the message processing unit. 
     
     
         29 . The image forming system according to  claim 25 , wherein the data storage device stores template files containing respective default data of the user interface screen, and the transmitting unit selects one of the template files and transmits the message to set default data in the selected template file as data of one of user interface screens in the user interface data.