Techniques for scheduling and guaranteeing print jobs
AssigneeNovell, Inc.
InventorRuma Chakraborty
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Techniques for scheduling and guaranteeing print jobs are presented. Print jobs are scheduled to process on a selected printer at user-defined dates and times. A print queue for the selected printer is managed to ensure that no subsequent print job begins on the printer when that subsequent print job cannot finish before a scheduled start time of a scheduled print job that has been guaranteed the scheduled start time on the printer.
Claims24
A method implemented in a computer-readable storage medium to process on a server and to perform the method, comprising:
- receiving a print job request with print data from a requestor;
- identifying a future date and time requested for the print job request and made by the requestor;
- and
- assuring the requestor that the print job request is to execute on the future date and time after successful inspection of a schedule for existing print job requests.
A method implemented in a computer-readable storage medium to process on one or more processors and to perform the method, comprising:
- providing a graphical user interface (GUI) calendar application to a user, wherein the GUI calendar application identifies calendar entries for a printer and each calendar entry identifies a start and end time for a scheduled print job or identifies an available date and time slot for receiving other print jobs;
- and
- receiving a new print job from the user via a particular calendar entry within the GUI calendar application and reserving that particular calendar entry and its time slot for the printer to process that new print job on behalf of the user.
A system implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and adapted to be executed by one or more processors of a network, comprising:
- a print server machine enabled over a network to manage a printer;
- and
- a print job scheduler implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to process on the print server;
- wherein the print job scheduler manages a print job schedule for the printer and holds print jobs in abeyance for execution by the printer until designated dates and start times are reached for those print jobs, and wherein the print job scheduler manages a print queue for the printer to ensure that the printer does not begin to process a particular print job when that particular print job cannot complete before a scheduled start time of one of the print jobs being held in abeyance for execution by the printer.
A system implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and adapted to be executed by one or more processors of a network, comprising:
- a Graphical User Interface (GUI) calendar service implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to execute on a processor of the network;
- and
- a printer manager implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to execute on the processor or another processor of the network;
- wherein the GUI calendar service is presented to a user and provides a calendar for a printer selected by the user, each calendar entry identifies a particular start date and start time-of-day for a scheduled print job of the printer and the calendar also identifies available dates and times that new print jobs can be processed, and wherein the printer manager interacts with the calendar of the GUI calendar service to start print jobs for the printer at dates and times dictated by the calendar entries and the printer manager uses the calendar entries to deny subsequent print jobs that attempt to gain access to a print queue of the printer when those subsequent print jobs conflict with the scheduled print jobs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.