Approach for printing policy-enabled electronic documents using locked printing

A computer-implemented method for processing a policy-enabled electronic document at a printing device, the computer-implemented method comprising:

• a locked print process executing on the printing device and:
• examining header data contained in print data received by the printing device to determine whether the header data contains one or more print job language (PJL) commands that indicate that an electronic document contained in the print data is a policy-enabled document,
• if the electronic document contained in the print data is a policy-enabled document, then causing the print data to be stored at the printing device instead of being processed for printing,
• in response to both a successful verification of a user to access the printing device and a request to print the electronic document via the user interface at the printing device, transmit, over a network to a policy server, both document identification data that identifies the electronic document and user credential data for the user to allow the policy server to determine, based upon the document identification data, the user credential data and a policy, whether the user is authorized by the policy to print the electronic document, wherein the policy specifies whether the user is authorized to print the electronic document, and
• if the user is authorized by the policy to print the electronic document, then causing the electronic document to be printed at the printing device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for processing a policy-enabled electronic document at a printing device, the computer-readable medium carrying instructions which, when processed by one or more processors, cause:

• a locked print process executing on the printing device and:
• examining header data contained in print data received by the printing device to determine whether the header data contains one or more print job language (PJL) commands that indicate that an electronic document contained in the print data is a policy-enabled document,
• if the electronic document contained in the print data is a policy-enabled document, then causing the print data to be stored at the printing device instead of being processed for printing,
• in response to both a successful verification of a user to access the printing device and a request to print the electronic document via the user interface at the printing device, transmit, over a network to a policy server, both document identification data that identifies the electronic document and user credential data for the user to allow the policy server to determine, based upon the document identification data, the user credential data and a policy, whether the user is authorized by the policy to print the electronic document, wherein the policy specifies whether the user is authorized to print the electronic document, and
• if the user is authorized by the policy to print the electronic document, then causing the electronic document to be printed at the printing device.