Image forming apparatus and method for the same

An image forming apparatus configured to control a plurality of applications according to setting information and a pluraltiy of import modules, each import module corresponding to different one of the plurality of applications, the image forming apparatus comprising:

• a memory;
• a policy database;
• a network interface circuit and a Universal Serial Bus interface, wherein a file including file setting information is obtained via either one or both of the network interface circuit and the Universal Serial Bus interface and the file setting information is written to the policy database;
• and
• a hardware processor executing instructions in the memory to:
• acquire a model management identifier and a serial number from the obtained file,
• determine, from among a plurality of levels, an import level that is to be used for determining a setting value to which reflection is allowed, from among a plurality of setting values included in the file setting information in the obtained file,
• wherein, in a case where the model management identifier acquired from the obtained file matches a model management identifier of the image forming apparatus and the serial number acquired from the obtained file matches a serial number of the image forming apparatus, a first level is determined as the import level,
• wherein, in a case where the model management identifier acquired from the obtained file matches the model management identifier of the image forming apparatus and the serial number acquired from the obtained file does not match the serial number of the image forming apparatus, a second level is determined as the import level, and
• wherein, in a case where the model management identifier acquired from the obtained file does not match the model management identifier of the image forming apparatus, a third level is determined as the import level, and
• output an import instruction of the file setting information in the policy database and the determined import level to each import module,
• wherein, by each import module, only a plurality of setting values of own pertaining to the import module itself, not the other import modules, is read out of the file setting information in the policy database, and whether to reflect or not is determined based on the determined import level for each setting value included in the plurality of setting values.