Non-transitory computer-readable medium, communication relay apparatus, and image processing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9565053-B2
Application number	US-201314068146-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2013
Priority date	Oct 31, 2012
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

A process and system are described in which a session is established between a client application and a communication relay program being executed by a processor. In response to a process request from the client application, session information is added to the process request to identify the established session. Next, the process request with the session information is transmitted to an image processing apparatus. Responses received from the image processing apparatus may include the session information to identify to which session each response belongs. The communication relay program removes the session information from the response and forwards the response to the client application through the relevant session.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a communication relay program including instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes an information processing apparatus connected to an image processing apparatus through a communication interface, to:
in response to a request for establishment of a session by a client application, the client application performing multi-session communication, establish a session between the communication relay program and the client application;
receive a process request from the client application through the established session;
add session information for identifying the established session to the process request received from the client application;
transmit the process request including the session information to the image processing apparatus;
receive from the image processing apparatus a response including the session information, such that the response is a response corresponding to the process request transmitted to the image processing apparatus;
remove the session information from the response including the session information received from the image processing apparatus; and
transmit the response without the session information to the client application through the session identified by the session information.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 , wherein the communication relay program further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the information processing apparatus to:
when the session has been established between the communication relay program and the client application, generate a session identifier regarding the established session;
store the session identifier and identification information for identifying the established session in a storage device while associating the session identifier and the identification information with each other,
add the session identifier to the process request as the session information; and
transmit the response to the client application through the session identified by the identification information associated with the session identifier added to the response received from the image processing apparatus.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 2 , wherein the communication relay program further includes instructions that, cause the information processing apparatus to:
delete, after the response is transmitted to the client application, the session identifier and the identification information associated with the session identifier from the storage device.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 ,
wherein the client application transmits the process request while dividing the process request into a plurality of pieces of partial process request data, and
wherein the communication relay program further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the information processing apparatus to:
transmit the session information and a first piece of partial process request data to the image processing apparatus when the first piece of partial process request data has been received from the client application; and
transmit the piece of partial process request data without the session information to the image processing apparatus when a piece of partial process request data subsequent to the first piece of partial process request data has been received from the client application.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 , wherein the communication relay program further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the information processing apparatus to:
divide the process request into a plurality of pieces of partial process request data; and
transmit the plurality of pieces of partial process request data to the image processing apparatus, each of the plurality of pieces of partial process request data including the session information.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 5 , wherein the communication relay program further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the information processing apparatus to divide the process request into pieces of partial process request data having a certain data size.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 6 , wherein the communication relay program further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the information processing apparatus to transmit information indicating completion of transmission of the process request to the image processing apparatus in response to transmission of all the pieces of partial process request data to the image processing apparatus.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 ,
wherein the communication interface is a universal serial bus cable.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 ,
wherein the client application is a web browser.

10. A communication relay apparatus comprising:
a communication device configured to communicate with an image processing apparatus through a communication interface;
a processor; and
a storage device configured to store a communication relay program including instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the image processing apparatus to:
when establishment of a session is requested by a client application that performs multi-session communication, establish a session between the communication relay program and the client application;
receive a process request from the client application through the established session;
add session information for identifying the established session to the process request received from the client application;
transmit the process request including the session information to the image processing apparatus;
receive from the image processing apparatus a response including session information, which is a response corresponding to the process request transmitted to the image processing apparatus;
remove the session information from the response including session information received from the image processing apparatus; and
transmit the response without the session information to the client application through the session identified by the session information.

11. An image processing apparatus comprising:
a communication interface for communication with an information processing apparatus; and
a processor including Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) module and response module, wherein the processor is configured to:
receive a process request including first session information from the information processing apparatus;
determine whether or not second session information is stored in a storage device and is associated with communication information for identifying a particular communication established between the IPP module and the response module, wherein the second session information is identical to the first session information included in the received process request;
when it is determined that the second session information is not stored:
establish new communication between the IPP module and the response module, the new communication being different from the particular communication;
store communication identification information for identifying the new communication and the first session information in the storage device while associating the communication identification information and the first session information with each other, and
transmit, to the response module through the new communication, a first partial process request generated by removing the first session

Assignees

• Kadota Masatoshi
• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Kadota Masatoshi

Classifications

• G06F21/608

  Secure printing · CPC title

• G06F3/1209 Primary

  resulting in adapted or bridged legacy communication protocols, e.g. emulation, protocol extension · CPC title

• G06F3/1288

  in client-server-printer device configuration · CPC title

• H04L67/141

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• G06F3/1236

  Connection management · CPC title