Print job tracking and policy enforcement
AssigneeLexmark International, Inc.
InventorSaugata Rana
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatus enforce policy on print jobs and track them per users. A computing device has a layered service provider (LSP) and a spooler. The LSP determines whether data coining to it corresponds to print data or not. If so, it extracts user information and determines whether any imaging policies apply to the user. If policy applies, the LSP iteratively acknowledges to the spooler that data is being successfully transferred to an imaging device so the spooler will continue sending a remainder of the data corresponding to the print job. Upon receipt of an entire print job, the LSP enforces policy and notifies the user. It also notifies an accounting server to update its policies. Further embodiments note relationships between the LSP and spooler and their interaction with layers in a TCP/IP model.
Claims17
In a computing device configured to send print jobs to an imaging device, a method of installing imaging policy on the computing device regardless of a type of the imaging device, comprising:
- configuring a layered service provider of the computing device to determine whether data coming to the layered service provider includes print header information;
- if the data includes said print header information, configuring the layered service provider to extract information of a user sending from the computing device to the imaging device;
- if imaging policies exist for the user sending data from the computing device to the imaging device, configuring the layered service provider to cause a spooler of the computing device to spool an entirety of the data of a current print job coming to the spooler without sending any of the data of the current print job to the imaging device;
- and
- configuring the layered service provider to iteratively acknowledge to the spooler of the computing device that data of the current print job coming to the layered service provider is being successfully sent to the imaging device for printing when in fact the data of the current print job is not being sent to the imaging device thereby spoofing the spooler of the computing device.
A method for enforcing imaging policy on users sending print jobs direct from a network port of a computing device to an imaging device, comprising:
- configuring a layered service provider of the computing device;
- determining whether data coining to the layered service provider corresponds to a print job from the computing device to the imaging device;
- if so, determining a user who sent the print job from the computing device to the imaging device;
- determining whether any imaging policies correspond to the user that require applying to the print job;
- and
- if so, causing a spooler of the computing device to spool an entirety of the data of the print job coming to the spooler without sending any of the data of the print job to the imaging device and during spooling repeatedly acknowledging from the layered service provide to the spooler of the computing device that data is being successfully transferred to the imaging device when in fact the data of the print job is not being sent to the imaging device so the spooler will be spoofed into believing the spooler is sending the data to the imaging device and will continue sending a remainder of the data corresponding to the print job.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.