1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer for receiving print data transmitted from a client PC via a network and for effecting print processing on the basis of the received print data, as well as a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In printing making use of a network, since the client side and the printer are located away from each other, it is not easily possible to directly ascertain the state of the printer. When a print request has been issued from the client side to the printer, in a case where printing could not be effected properly due to a failure occurring in the printer, running out of paper, running out of toner, or the like, a user is unable to notice that printing could not be done. In addition, if the printer does not have a spool (HDD, a memory, etc.), the sent print data is inevitably deleted.
At the time of executing printing again, it has been necessary to prepare the print data again on the client side, and make a print request again to the printer.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-102916 discloses a technique in which electronic mail to which data subject to printing is attached and in which printing attributes, an address of a transfer destination, and the like are described in the text of the mail is sent from a personal computer to a printer, and in the event that an obstacle hampering printing has occurred in the printer, the received mail is transferred to the address of the transfer destination described in the text of the received mail, and a notification is given thereto to the effect that it has been transferred.
However, particularly in the printer which does not have a spool, in the event that an obstacle hampering printing has occurred, the print data is inevitably deleted in the printer. At the time of executing printing again, it has been necessary to prepare the print data again on the client side, and subsequently issue a print request again.
In addition, even if the printer has a spool, in a case where the print data transmitted from the client side is large, the print data cannot be stored in the spool. Furthermore, if preceding print data is already stored in the spool, there are cases where following print data cannot be stored, in which case the print data is deleted.
In addition, according to the technique of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-102916, it is possible to know that printing could not be effected properly, but since only a notification is given to the effect that the print data has been transferred, in order for the client to obtain a printing result again, it is necessary to send from the client side electronic mail with the print data attached thereto. This operation is troublesome, and the client side is inevitably restrained until printing is completed.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a printer which, in the event of printing failure by the printer, makes it possible for the client device to obtain the print data without forming the print data again, as well as a method of controlling the same.