BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus that controls printing in an image forming apparatus that forms a predetermined image by printing, a method of controlling a printing control apparatus, and a storage medium.

Description of the Related Art

Production printers for use in commercial printing comprise a plurality of trays that hold various types of paper sheets in order to meet various demands from customers. In such production printers, information on each paper sheet held therein is stored in association with the corresponding tray. During a printing process, the user can store the information on the paper sheet to be used in the next print job in association with a tray that is not used in the current print job, in order to improve the work efficiency.

For such production printing, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-159497 discloses a technique of restricting update of information on the paper sheets in a tray that is currently used for printing. Also, a non-patent literature (“Media Librarian User's Guide” by CANON INC. https://oip.manual.canon/USRMA-2993-zz-OP-mlg-jaJP/contents/devu-ope-psourceunit.html#18_h1_01: Japanese version/https://oip.manual.canon/USRMA-2994-zz-OP-mlg-enGB/contents/devu-ope-psourceunit.html#17_h1_01: English version) discloses a technique in which for a tray in association with which information on a paper sheet is stored, update of the information is restricted.

However, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-159497, in a case where a plurality of users use a single production printer, the information on a paper sheet stored in association with a tray by one user may be changed by another user while printing is not performed. Also, the technique disclosed in the non-patent literature includes a lock mechanism that restricts update of the information on a paper sheet associated with a tray by selecting a lock button for the tray, but the user needs to select the lock button again to disable the restriction.

Thus, in the technique disclosed in the non-patent literature, in a case where update of the information on a paper sheet stored in association with a tray is restricted, the restriction on update of the information needs to be disabled via the lock button. Then, if a user recognizes that update of information on the paper sheet for a tray is restricted after inputting that information, the user must input the information again after disabling the restriction via the lock button. This makes the work cumbersome.

SUMMARY I/F THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems and provides a printing control apparatus, a method of controlling a printing control apparatus, and a storage medium that simplify a process of updating information on a paper sheet for a tray for which update of the information is restricted.

In the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing control apparatus for controlling printing in an image forming apparatus, comprising:

a reception unit configured to receive update information for updating information on a print medium stored in association with each of a plurality of trays that are provided in the image forming apparatus and hold print media, and receive an update instruction to update the information stored in association with one of the plurality of trays, the update information being information on a print medium;

an update unit configured to, based on the update instruction, update the information stored in association with the tray to the update information;

a restriction unit configured to restrict update of the information stored in association with the tray by the update unit; and

a presenting unit configured to present a first user interface requesting to select whether to update the information stored in association with the tray for which update of the information is restricted by the restriction unit to the update information in a case where the reception unit receives the update information and the update instruction for the tray,

wherein the update unit updates the information stored in association with the tray depending on a selection made via the first user interface.

In the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a printing control apparatus that controls printing in an image forming apparatus while updating information on a print medium stored in association with each of a plurality of trays that are provided in the image forming apparatus and hold print media and restricting update of the information stored in association with the tray, the method comprising:

presenting a user interface requesting to select whether to update the information stored in association with the tray for which update of the information is restricted to update information for updating the information in a case where the update information and an update instruction to update the information to the update information are received for the tray, the update information being information on a print medium; and

updating the information stored in association with the tray depending on a selection made via the first user interface.

In the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to perform a method of controlling a printing control apparatus that controls printing in an image forming apparatus while updating information on a print medium stored in association with each of a plurality of trays that are provided in the image forming apparatus and hold print media and restricting update of the information stored in association with the tray, the method comprising:

presenting a user interface requesting to select whether to update the information stored in association with the tray for which update of the information is restricted to update information for updating the information in a case where the update information and an update instruction to update the information to the update information are received for the tray, the update information being information on a print medium; and

updating the information stored in association with the tray depending on a selection made via the first user interface.

According to the present invention, a process of updating information on a print medium stored in association with a tray is simplified.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

