Printing system, print relay server, method of controlling the server, and program

摘要

The present invention provides a mechanism to acquire content that has not been converted into print data from a vendor server providing a print service.;The mechanism acquires content data corresponding to content identification information from an application server if location information about print data acquired on the basis of the content identification information that is acquired coincides with location information about print data included in notification information that is acquired.

主权项

1. A print relay server capable of communicating with an application server, a print server, and an image forming apparatus, the application server providing a Web service for generating content data to a client and storing the content data generated by the client by using the provided Web service, the print server providing print data generated on the basis of the content data stored in the application server to a destination, the image forming apparatus including a print unit that performs printing on the basis of the print data, the print relay server comprising:
a notification information acquiring unit configured to acquire notification information that is transmitted by the print server to provide the print data to the destination and that includes common information commonly added to both the content data and the print data; an identification information acquiring unit configured to acquire content identification information for identifying the content data to which the acquired common information is added from the application server; a data acquiring unit configured to acquire the content data corresponding to the content identification information from the application server if location information about the print data acquired on the basis of the acquired content identification information coincides with location information about the print data included in the acquired notification information; a print data generating unit configured to generate the print data on the basis of the acquired content data; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit the print data generated by the print data generating unit to the image forming apparatus, wherein the data acquiring unit acquires a size of the content data on the basis of the acquired content identification information, acquires a size of the print data on the basis of the acquired notification information, and acquires the content data from the application server if the size of the content data is smaller than that of the print data, and otherwise acquires the print data from the print server, whereby the transmitting unit transmits print data acquired from the print server to the image forming apparatus rather than the print data generated by the print data generating unit.