Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A printing system in which one or more clients communicate with a plurality of printers by way of a print server, whose architecture is characterized by a plurality of layers, is provided. In practice, one of the plurality of layers receives a request from one of the one or more clients and the request designates an operation to be performed with respect to one of the plurality of printers. The printing system includes an application layer, communicating with the one of the plurality of layers, for developing a command expression based on the request received by the one or the plurality of layers, and a communications interface including a first connectivity module and a second connectivity module, with the first connectivity module communicating with a first one of the plurality of printers and the second connectivity module communicating with a second one of the plurality of printers. The printing system further includes a routing interface, communicating with both the application layer and the communications interface, for directing the command expression to a selected one of the first connectivity module and the second connectivity module. Accordingly, the selected one of the first and second connectivity modules uses the command expression to perform at least a part of the designated operation with respect to the one or the plurality of printers.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim