Image forming apparatus, image forming system, and method for realizing pseudo single sign-on

An image forming system, comprising:

• an image forming apparatus coupled to an intranet;
• a terminal device coupled to the intranet, wherein the intranet is communicatively coupled to the Internet and a cloud service in a cloud server via a router;
• an agent server communicatively coupled between the intranet and the Internet;
• and
• a server that includes a software development kit (SDK) downloaded onto the terminal device when an extended application to be installed in the image forming apparatus is developed on the terminal device, the image forming apparatus comprising:
• the extended application that causes a user through the terminal device to use the cloud service in the cloud server;
• and
• an internal user authentication unit that performs an internal sign-on process with respect to the image forming apparatus based on first user authentication information;
• the agent server comprising:
• an internal authentication information storage unit that stores the first user authentication information for internal authentication relating to authentication for the image forming apparatus, wherein the first user authentication information is associated with the user;
• an external authentication information storage unit that stores second user authentication information for external authentication relating to authentication for the cloud service and a private IP address that is assigned to the terminal device in the intranet as a destination IP address for the user, in association with one another for each of a plurality of URLs for the external authentication;
• an authentication necessity determination unit that determines, when a response message corresponding to the request being issued to the plurality of URLs includes information indicating that the authentication has not been performed yet, whether a redirection destination URL included in the response message transferred from the cloud server matches at least one of the plurality of URLs for the external authentication stored in the external authentication information storage unit:
• and
• a cloud service authentication substitution unit that
• i) reads from the external authentication information storage unit, if the redirection destination URL matches at least one of the plurality of URLs, the second user authentication information for the external authentication relating to the private IP address into which a pair of a global IP address and a port number are converted by the router in the response message,
• ii) transmits the second user authentication information for the external authentication to the redirection destination URL, and
• iii) performs an external sign-on process with respect to the cloud service.

A method of causing a user to perform sign-on for a cloud service in a cloud server and to use the cloud service through a terminal device, wherein an intranet is communicatively coupled to the Internet and the cloud service via a router, the method comprising:

• storing first user authentication information for internal authentication relating to authentication for an image forming apparatus, wherein the first user authentication information is associated with the user;
• performing internal sign-on process with respect to the image forming apparatus based on the first user authentication information;
• storing second user authentication information for external authentication relating to authentication for the cloud service, and a private IP address that is assigned to the terminal device in the intranet as a destination IP address for the user, in association with one another for each of a plurality of URLs for the external authentication;
• determining, when a response message corresponding to the request being issued to the plurality of URLs includes information indicating that the authentication has not been performed yet, whether a redirection destination URL included in the response message transferred from the cloud server matches at least one of the plurality of URLs for the external authentication stored in the external authentication information storage unit;
• reading from the external authentication information storage unit, if the redirection destination URL matches at least one of the plurality of URLs, the second user authentication information for the external authentication relating to the private IP address corresponding to a destination IP address into which a pair of a global IP address and a port number are converted by the router in the response message;
• transmitting the second user authentication information for external authentication to the redirection destination URL;
• and
• performing an external sign-on process with respect to the cloud service.