Xerox Corporation

John Y Zhang

Christine Miyachi

Gerald A Wedekind

David L Salgado

Likang Guo

Bradley W Smith

Vibhaker Moudgil

Thomas N Hastings

Thomas N Hasting

A printer driver enables a user to determine whether the features that are required to print a specified job are available to a selected network printer. The printer driver queries the selected printer to acquire the current status and other relevant information for each feature that is required to print the job, then provides the results of the query at a user interface. Accordingly, if any of the required features are unavailable to the selected printer, the user can print the job using another printer or take some other appropriate action.

Driver that presents context sensitive information about device features

A method to modify the availability of one or more attributes within a print network. One or more devices are interrogated to determine associated attributes. A first set of attribute combinations that cause device failure is determined and placed in an unsupported bank for each device. A second set of attribute combinations that do not cause device failure are determined and placed in a supported bank for each device. Access to the first set of attribute combinations is disabled and access to the second set of attribute combinations is enabled.

Protocol allowing modification of device attribute availability on a print network

A system facilitates communication between a control component and a plurality of processing components. One or more processing components performs one or more tasks, each processing component has at least one attribute associated therewith. One or more attribute banks are associated with each of the one or more processing components, wherein each attribute bank stores the at least one attribute. A control component initiates the one or more tasks for each processing component. A universal driver facilitates communication between the one or more processing components and the control component. The driver includes an interrogation component that queries the one or more processing components to receive the at least one attribute associated with each processing component. A constraint evaluator determines combinations of attributes that are supported and unsupported for each of the one or more processing components. An attribute filter categorizes each attribute combination based at least in part on whether it is supported or unsupported.

Protocol allowing a document management system to communicate inter-attribute constraints to its clients

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La Canada, CA, United States of America

John Y Zhang