International Business Machines Corporation

Infoprintsolutions Company, LLC

Anthony Franke Stuart

Ronald L Heiney

James Warden Marlin

Thomas Michael Ruehle

Raymond Lowell Knudson

Edward Thomas Hughes, Iii

Dwight Ross Palmer

Gregory Scott Felderman

Leonard Corning Lahey

Adam A Swartz

Robert Curt Nielsen

Jagdish Mooljee Nagda

Keith E Duvall

Claude A Bugg

Mahesh Viswanathan

Harry Reese Lewis, Jr

John Stuart Walker

Steven M Scott

Douglas I Ward

Stuart Walker

Various embodiments of a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for processing an extensible markup language (XML) script using an XML based scripting language are provided. The XML script is parsed. The XML script comprises element nodes. Each element node comprises a component name. A first element node comprises a first component name referencing a first user-defined component. An argument is passed to the first user-defined component. The argument is evaluated when an element node associated with the first user-defined component comprises an evaluate-component name that explicitly specifies that the argument be evaluated.

XML based scripting language

A customer record is generated to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product. A job record including a status field is added to a job status table and set to a first status. A first worker is invoked if the selected job has the first status to generate output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job. The status for the selected job in the job status table is set to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker. A second worker is invoked if the selected job has the second status to determine whether a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job and transmits the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

Database driven workflow management system for generating output material based on customer input

A method, computer program product and print server for discovering printers connected to a print server. A print server may transmit a HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) request to every Internet Protocol (IP) address in a range of IP addresses. A response, e.g., a document such as a web page, may be received by the print server from one or more devices at one or more IP addresses in the range of IP addresses. The print server may identify one or more out of these devices that transmitted a response as printers based on analyzing the responses from the devices. The print server may obtain printer attribute information from the identified printers and update a database with the obtained printer attribute information.

Printer discovery, status and automatic addition of printer to print spooler database

Disclosed is a workflow management system for creating and delivering output material. A customer record is generated to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected output method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record. A job record including a status field is added to a job status table for the customer record and set to a first status. A first worker generates output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job, and sets the status for the selected job to a second status. A second worker determines a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job and transmits the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

A method and system for providing distributed printing is disclosed. The method and system include providing a plurality of printers, at least one print spooler, and at least one relational database coupled with the print spooler. The print spooler(s) are for managing printing operations. The relational database(s) are coupled with the print spooler. The relational database also includes a plurality of tables that store a plurality of print objects.

Method and system for performing large scale distributed printing using a relational database

A system, method, and program for controlling a manufacturing process is described. A highest priority work item having a ready status for a processing step is retrieved from one or more relational database tables. The processing step is performed by either a processing device or by a work flow management system having one or more work managers. Upon completion of the processing step, the status of the work item in the one or more relational database tables is updated to a completed status of the processing step. The completed status of the processing step represents a ready status for a new processing step. For one embodiment of the present invention, the manufacturing process is a production printing and mailing operation that performs a plurality of processing steps on a mail piece. As the mail piece is processed, it is transformed from a print file to printed media in an envelope ready for mailing.

Applying relational database technology to process control in manufacturing processes

A data processing system and method of preparing a presentation-ready document are described. In response to receipt of a document description that includes at least one Page Description Language (PDL) instruction and specifies both fixed data and variable data, the one or more PDL instructions are processed to produce separate presentation-ready images of the fixed data and the variable data. In addition, a bookticket specifying an arrangement of the presentation-ready images of the fixed data and the variable data is automatically generated. In response to receipt of the bookticket, a presentation-ready document is built that includes the presentation-ready images of the fixed data and the variable data in the arrangement specified by the bookticket. In one embodiment of the present invention, the document description specifies the fixed data of the document utilizing a PDL form operator.

Data processing system and method for Preparing a presentation-ready

A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is provided for workstations on a network in which a complex operation is controlled. At least one node on the network has a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) with an object oriented database for storing data objects for the complex operation. Objects are organized according to the DMI into components, groups and attributes. The GUI is generic to any complex operation but requires the DMI for access to data. The GUI enables the user to manage information in the database in whatever manner the user has interest through the provision of report definitions through which specific component, group, and attribute data are obtained in accordance with row and column definitions for table display. The DMI interface is probed with appropriate commands generated by the GUI to obtain and display the requested data. Provision is made for displaying data in chart format and a chain feature is provided to move from one report to another. Various other features are provided.

Table driven graphical user interface

A system for enabling the use of the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) in a network where the particular computing system containing the DMI and its database reside on one node and where management applications and devices (instrumented components) reside at other nodes. A client interface is established at each of the required client platforms by supporting all of the functions of the management interface (MI) and/or component interface (CI) at the platforms. In that manner, the management application can address the client management interface at its own node as though it were on the DMI node. The client MI issues a 'Remote Procedure Call' (RPC) using network protocol to address the DMI node. A server agent at the DMI node receives the call and acts as a proxy management application to address the DMI and its database. Similarly, instrumented components can address the client component interface at its own node as though it were on the DMI node. The client CI issues an RPC to address the DMI node. A server agent at the DMI node receives the call and acts as a proxy component to address the DMI and its database. In that manner, the semantics and syntax of the DMI is preserved while enabling three-way dialogues between clients, servers and instrumented components all residing on different nodes which may have a variety of operating systems, hardware platforms and architectures.

System for extending the desktop management interface at one node to a

A communication medium and method enabling the identification of manageable data produced on mainframe equipment, so that the data can be established in a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) database. In that manner, management applications residing on desktop equipment connected to the DMI nodes can manage a complex process which includes mainframe equipment. The medium is a 'tag' comprising a structured field which is sent from the mainframe to a desktop machine containing a server agent for generating DMI commands from the tag to address the database. In one embodiment, an exit agent is provided to split tags out of a mainframe generated datastream and send them to the server agent. The technique is extended to include desktop nodes so that tags can be produced and sent to the server agent for the generation of DMI commands.

Desktop management of host applications

A data compression and decompression technique compresses a binary stream of digital data into compressed form and decompresses a compressed data stream into decompressed form without any loss of fidelity. The techniques require very little processing time to permit compression and decompression of digital data quickly. Once the digital data is compressed into compressed form, the amount of memory required to store the compressed digital data is much less than the amount of memory required to store the corresponding data in uncompressed form.

Apparatus and associated method for compressing and decompressing

A system and method for efficiently utilizing the output devices of a computer system to perform output functions. The output devices are capable of bidirectional communication and are capable of generating information pertaining to static and dynamic attributes of the respective output devices. Responsive to the additional information pertaining to the static and dynamic attributes of the output devices, particular ones of the output devices are allocated to effectuate particular ones of the output functions.

System and method for controlling computer output devices by utilizing

An ordered index file is created for archived report data wherein each index file contains a series of 4-byte offsets into the report data. Each offset points to a field within a row of the report data from archival storage. Upon later retrieval from the report data, a binary search is performed for a key(s) that is contained in a search query, using the index field offsets to determine the order in which to retrieve the report data fields. The binary search resolves each key in the search query to a range of index offsets corresponding to report rows that match the query. The search technique optimize final filtering of matches by using the search query that matched the smallest range as the controlling field for resolving overlap of fields in the search query. Since all of the offsets refer to the same report file, this optimization operation compares the offsets of the fields, rather than comparing the field values themselves. A range check is performed before the binary search to determine whether the search key is outside the range of keys that are in the ordered index files, thereby preventing unnecessary searching of indexes that cannot contain the search key(s).

Indexing method and apparatus facilitating a binary search of digital

Instrumentation logic is provided to map object oriented protocols to efficient data management protocols to provide direct, keyed access to multiple data entries. An object oriented database is utilized to model a complex process since it is easily extended to include tables of transactions for each of the many process steps in a complex operation. The database is accessed through the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) with individual DMI commands issued to get or set each individual entry. An application requiring access to many entries would require detailed knowledge of the database and would need to generate many DMI commands. For such an application, instrumentation logic is provided and is accessed by the application through a normal DMI command. The instrumentation then generates all of the successive DMI commands needed to access multiple entries. The invention is extended by utilizing an additional database management system such as DB2 which provide efficient query/response access to large databases. In such case, the invoked instrumentation logic issues a query to obtain the requested data. In both cases, the instrumentation returns the data utilizing the normal DMI interface.

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Anthony Franke Stuart