Granted Patent B2

US 9,239,818 · App. 13/687,652 · Granted Jan 19, 2016

Abstract

Claims (65)

1. An image forming device, comprising:

a memory, a communicator connected to a network, a user interface (UI) processor, a display, and a controller, the controller configured to:

in response to a request to access a setting menu:

control the display to display a setting screen for registering a plurality of servers; and

receive a plurality of servers to be registered via the setting screen, wherein receiving a particular server includes entering, by a user, a server address for accessing application information concerning one or more applications supported by the particular server and setting a priority for the particular server; store in the memory the received plurality of servers as a plurality of registered servers;

control the communicator to collect the application information from each of the plurality of registered servers;

control the UI processor to configure an integrated UI to display representations of applications supported by the plurality of servers including any duplicate applications;

control the display to display the integrated UI according to the set priority for each of the plurality of registered servers; and

in response to a selection by a user of an application representation from the integrated UI, request a web service from a registered server supporting the selected application representation.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the setting screen comprises a first area to input server addresses, a second area to input whether to display any application on the integrated UI supported by each server of the plurality of registered servers, and a third area to set the priority for each server of the plurality of registered servers.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 , the controller further configured to control the display to display a waiting screen including a web service menu; and

in response to a user selection of the web service menu from the waiting screen, request the application information from the plurality of registered servers.

4. The device as claimed in claim 3 , the controller further configured to:

in response to a user selection of the web service menu:

control the UI processor to request the application information from the plurality of servers registered in the memory; and

to update the integrated UI by using application information received according to the request.

5. The device as claimed in claim 3 , the controller further configured to:

in response to a pre-defined event:

control the UI processor to request the application information from the plurality of servers registered in the memory;

reconfigure the integrated UI according to the requested application information; and

control the display to store the reconfigured integrated UI and, in response to a user selection of the web service menu, to display the reconfigured integrated UI.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the collecting the application information from each of the plurality of registered servers comprises:

receiving HTML data;

extracting information of an area defined by a body tag in the HTML data as the application information; and

providing the information to the UI processor.

7. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the collecting the application information from each of the plurality of registered servers comprises:

parsing a unique string pre-defined in data received from the server;

extracting data of an area defined by the parsed unique string as the application information; and

providing the extracted data to the UI processor.

8. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the integrated UI is a UI in which a selection menu of all applications supported by the plurality of servers is enumerated.

9. A method for providing a web service to an image forming device, the method comprising:

in response to a request to access a setting menu:

displaying a setting screen for registering a plurality of servers; and

registering the plurality of servers via the setting screen, wherein registering a particular server includes entering, by a user, a server address for accessing application information concerning one or more applications supported by the particular server and setting a priority for the particular server;

collecting the application information from each of the plurality of registered servers in the image forming device;

configuring an integrated user interface (UI) to display a representation for each application supported by the plurality of registered servers;

displaying the integrated UI according to the set priority for each of the plurality of registered servers; and

in response to selecting an application representation from the integrated UI, requesting a web service from a server of the plurality of registered servers supporting the selected application representation.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the registering the plurality of servers further comprises:

storing information on each server of the plurality of servers registered on the setting screen.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the setting screen comprises a first area to input server addresses, a second area to input whether to display any application on the integrated UI supported by each server of the plurality of registered servers, and a third area to set the priority for each server of the plurality of registered servers.

12. The method as claimed in claim 9 , further comprising:

displaying a waiting screen including a web service menu; and

in response to a user selection of the web service menu from the waiting screen, requesting the application information from the plurality of registered servers.

13. The method as claimed in claim 9 , further comprising:

in response to a pre-defined event:

requesting the application information from the plurality of registered servers;

reconfiguring the integrated UI according to the requested information; and

storing the reconfigured integrated UI.

14. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein collecting the application information from each of the plurality of registered servers comprises:

receiving HTML data from the registered server; and

extracting information input in a body tag within the HTML data as the application information.

15. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein collecting the application information from each of the plurality of registered servers comprises:

receiving data from the registered server;

parsing a pre-defined unique string within the received data; and

extracting data of an area specified by the unique string as the application information.

16. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the integrated UI is a UI in which a selection menu of all applications supported by the plurality of servers is enumerated.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program to perform a method for providing a web service to an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

in response to a request to access a setting menu:

displaying a setting screen for registering a plurality of servers; and

registering the plurality of servers via the setting screen, wherein registering a particular server includes entering, by a user, a server address for accessing application information concerning one or more applications supported by the particular server and setting a priority for the particular server;

collecting the application information from each of the plurality of registered servers in the image forming apparatus;

configuring an integrated user interface (UI) to display a representation for each application supported by the plurality of registered servers;

displaying the integrated UI according to the set priority for each of the plurality of registered servers; and

in response to selecting an application representation from the integrated UI, requesting a web service from a server of the plurality of registered servers supporting the selected application.

Assignments (6)