Job scheduling system for print processing

A print processor which carries out printing upon receipt of a job processing request, including an instruction for processing print requests for a plurality of documents as one job and scheduling attributes, from a plurality of terminals through a network, said print processor comprising:

• timer means which, upon receipt of a job processing request from the terminal, checks whether or not a next print document was received within a predetermined period of time by monitoring a series of documents included in the job processing request;
• scheduling attribute judging means which, upon receipt of the job processing request, judges whether the scheduling attributes are after-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that the execution of a job is started upon receipt of all print documents related to the job or before-complete attributes which carry out scheduling in such a way that a job is executed with respect to a received print document every time each print document is received;
• final document processing means which, when said timer means has judged that the next print document could not be received within a predetermined period of time during the reception of the job processing request, handles a print document which was received immediately before this judgement as a final document of the current job, if the scheduling attributes are the after-complete attributes;
• and
• job completion processing means which, when said timer means has judged that the next print document could not be received within a predetermined period of time during the reception of the job processing request, completes the job by handling a print document which was received immediately before the judgement as the final document of the current job, if the scheduling attributes are the before-complete attributes.