1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image forming apparatus (e.g., printer) and an image forming system in which information can be transmitted from the image forming apparatus to users who use information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
One conventional system configuration is such that a plurality of personal computers and a printer are linked through a network and the personal computers are always informed of the status of the printer.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-239725 discloses one such system. A personal computer requests a printer to send information on the current status of the printer and the printer sends the information to the personal computer. The information is displayed on a display of the personal computer. The users receive messages from the printer through, for example, an e-mail message. Such messages include a message that a system maintenance operation will be conducted at a specific date and a time and a message that the printer will be busy at a specific time frame.
The aforementioned information on the current status of the printer and messages are sent through different means, and therefore cause the following inconvenience.
E-mail messages require involvement of maintenance personnel to be sent to individual users on a recipient-to-recipient basis. Some of the users may be omitted inadvertently. One way of ensuring that the messages are delivered to individual recipients is to send the same messages a plurality of times. This increases the mail-handling time of the system and imposes a heavy load on the network. Moreover, the users receive the same e-mails many times.
Users may well forget the information sent through an e-mail if the e-mail is sent many days earlier than a scheduled event that the mail is intended to inform the users.