Method of executing application installed in outside server and image forming apparatus to perform the same

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a communication interface unit to communicate with an outside server where an application is installed;
• a user interface unit to receive a user input;
• a control unit to enable the image forming apparatus to perform an image forming operation by executing the application installed in the outside server;
• and
• an image forming operation execution unit to execute the image forming operation under the control of the control unit,
• wherein the control unit comprises an application installation manager,
• wherein, once the image forming apparatus accesses the outside server through an install uniform resource locator (URL) received at the user interface unit, the application installation manager receives the application metadata from the outside server, verifies a reliability of the received metadata, and after completing the reliability verification, and creates on the user interface unit an icon corresponding to the application.

A method of executing in an image forming apparatus an application installed in an outside server, the method comprising:

• inputting into the image forming apparatus an install uniform resource locator (URL) corresponding to the outside server;
• controlling the image forming apparatus to access the outside server via the install URL, and to receive from the outside server metadata of the application;
• creating at the image forming apparatus a user interface corresponding to the application;
• and
• executing the application in the image forming apparatus via the user interface to perform an image forming function of the image forming apparatus.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a user interface unit to receive a user input of an install uniform resource locator (URL) corresponding to an outside server where an application is installed;
• a communication interface unit to access the outside server through the install URL and receive from the outside server metadata of the application;
• and
• a control unit to create a user interface corresponding to the application at the user interface unit, and to execute the application in the image forming apparatus via the user interface to perform an image forming function.