| US20060203272A1 | 2006-09-14 | |||
| DE29622450U1 | 1997-04-10 | |||
| US20040257591A1 | 2004-12-23 |
| SUMMARY
The invention claimed is:
L- A working method to let a first application exchange data with a second application by means of a software interface comprising the detection of a selection of data from the printout command in order to allow communication with these data.
2.- The working method according to claim 1, wherin the method is characterized such that it can be applied to independent and already existing third party applications having at least a printout possibility without necessarily having to have the possibilities of the usual communication facilities.
3.- The working method according to claims 1 or 2, wherin the method is conceived such that under the term applications is unterstood all independent software products, software objects or software components.
4.- The working method according to claim 3, wherin the connection with the interface is procured by means of a data communication.
5.- The working method according to claim 1, wherin the method makes a • detection of the data from the printout command by means of one or several characteristics of the printout data from the printout command determining the final representation of the printout data when the print command is used in a normal way. 6.- The working method according to claim 5, wherin the method relates to at least the following format charecteristics of the printout data: the font, the font style, the size, the font color, the position and the effect(s).
7.- The working method according to claim 1, wherin the method results in a detection of data from the print command by means of a character sequence in the printout data from the print command knowing that this sequence always forms part of the printout data if the print command is used in a normal way. 8.- The working method according to claim 7, wherin the characters in the character sequence don't necessarily have to follow one after another.
9.- The working method according to claim 7, wherin the characters include all letters, numbers and symbols frecuently used in documents, for which those from a ASC Il-tabel are an example.
10.- The working method according to claim 1, wherin the method compares the printout data from the print command with predetermined values such as described above resulting, when simmular, in the indication of the selected data.
11.- The working method according to claim 10, wherin the method allows that the indicated selected data via the interface can be used for other applications according to claims 1 and 2.
12.- The interface, comprising the possibility to allow independent applications as described under claims 1 and 2 and linked to the output of the interface, based on a simple print command and with the indicated selected data as described above, to steer machines, build electronic documents or to send electronic messages directly with only a minimal effort of the user or without interaction with the user, and with or without the print command in attachment, this only being an example for the wide range of possibilities in the scope of this invention. |
Method for data exchange between independent applications.
This invention refers to a working method and technical procedure to let communicate an independent existing application of third parties without being necessary to rely on the usual communication facilities. The invention enables the transfer of specific information from a first application to a second application by means of a print command.
The invention more specifically embraces a method to allow exchange of information between a first application and a second application by means of a software interface. Under the above-mentioned term "applications" is hereby understood all independent software products, software objects or software components, further below also called "entities".
This invention finds utility in a wider scope than that of personal computers and can also be applied to devices not meant or not designed to communicate with each other. For example, these devices can even be measure equipment from industrial surroundings printing a logging of a measurement value (such as temperature, humidity...) on a traditional printer. The scope of the invention in the broad sense thus refers to all devices capturing and printing data.
The entities are linked with the interface by means of a data communication. Under data communication hereby is understood each form of interaction and/or transfer of datas between the entities. The data communication can be achieved within the same computer or between two independent computers by or without making use of the traditional and usual connections or wirings between the entities.
Technical achievements on which this invention is applied, can even be conceived not to transfer the complete information from the print command but only very specific and particular parts of it in order to use and/or communicate these further. For example:
- passing on only the measured weight figuring on a ticket of a weighbridge
- passing on only the total amount of a printed receipt at the sale of goods
- passing on only an email address of a printed document. The scope of this invention is not limited to these examples.
The invention more specifically aims to select, interprete and indicate data within the interface by means of the digital characteristics, the position and/or a character sequence of printout data, thereby not using the printout data values themselves but more particularly the FEATURES or characteristics of the data and/or the order of certain characters in the print command.
Thus not only the font but also the other features of the printout data can be the decisive factor to determine the information that is to be communicated by means of the interface.
What matters in case of a character sequence is the order of certain characters and these characters don't necessarily need to follow immediately one after another.
For example € 0000, - in which "€" and "," "-" determine the character sequence.
For example xxx@xxx.xx in which "@" and "." determine the character sequence.
Under "character" hereby is understood all characters, figures and symbols which frecuently occur in documents, such as those of a ASCII-tabel.
In the interface the detected data are compared with the predetermined values in order to determine their simmularites. The invention of course also refers to the applied interface itself enabling the interpretation and data detection. The setup of communication between existing or old applications , for example those not designed to exchange information and possibly only with printout function, and another application focussing on the determination of specific data without using extra hardware was not possible in former days. Even in new or recent applications one must frequently revert to the integration of software connectors (these are software components or plugin's, whether or not originating from / provided by third suppliers and they can be very expensive) to be able to select specific data in order to get them outside the application and whether or not send them over the Internet. To illustrate the ingeniosity and. creativity of this invented method we can quote an extreme example: a person whose only computer equipment embraces a text processor and a simple invoice printer, when making use of this invention, is all of sudden able to collect specific information from the outprint command and exporting it to a payment terminal at a counter (for example the amount to pay). In the above-mentioned case the application of the invention also makes it possible to determine the information that is required to make an electronic invoice and/or to send an electronic message with or without the print command in attachment, and fully provided with all required data to send it, .All this with a minimal or without interaction with the user. The current state of the art already allowed to develop this invention but in order to actually make the invention the prejudice that an outprint only is a final result,, had to be overcome. A printout command can deliver fragmented data. Also the prejudice that these data are of no use anymore, had to be overcome. Nobody did this so far. Thanks to this invention the printout data (traditionally sent to a printer) therefore no longer are a final phase or a final result but can form the source for other applications or devices via datacommunication and the invented method. To avoid all misunderstandings it needs to be pointed out here that this invention does not refer to the OCR-technique or an optical recognition.
Figure 1. is a schematic representation of the sequence of steps needed to use the invention / needed to apply the invented method.