1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling a job process.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent POD (Print On Demand), there has been provided a job-process control system that manages a process from editing to printing/binding as a workflow by an information processing apparatus. In such a job-process control system, a job process of the workflow is automatically controlled based on a job ticket having an operation control condition (a job parameter) of each processing step defined therein. However, according to the job-process control system, an operation control condition of a processing step that is defined in the job ticket sometimes does not match the capability of a machine or a function that performs a process (device specifications or function specifications), so that it may be impossible to perform the process. Therefore, conventionally, by performing a prohibition process disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-118475, an error (a prohibition violation) that a processing step set in a job cannot be performed is notified to an operator and the error can be eliminated by resetting.
However, according to conventional job-process control, an operator needs to manually eliminate an occurring prohibition violation (reset). Accordingly, the conventional job-process control has had problems that regardless of the prohibition violation type, a processing step of a workflow is interrupted for an operator operation for eliminating an error, so that the production efficiency of the entire system is reduced.
In view of the above, there is a need to provide an information processing apparatus, a job-process control method, and a job-process control computer program product that can enhance the productivity of a job process.