Systems and methods are provided though which a transaction, e.g., in a multi-tier, distributed application may be initiated from a portable or hand-held device, such as a smartphone. A computer system or systems, possibly remote from the device, may approve the transaction, complete it, or both, and the remote computer system or systems may cause a document to be printed, e.g., by a printer physically proximate to the device. Aspects of the invention are illustrated by embodiments in which a drug prescription may be created electronically using a hand-held device. In such an embodiment, the prescription may be transmitted to one or more remote computer systems, such as an application server, for processing. If specified, the remote computer systems may cause a prescription to be printed, e.g., at a printer near the prescriber's location. The prescriber may sign the printed prescription and give it to a patient or pharmacy.

An information processing apparatus instructs a plurality of print plug-ins having at least a printer search function to search for a printer and displays, if the plurality of print plug-ins are instructed to perform the search, a first screen which includes (1) a printer detected by search processing performed by the plurality of print plug-ins instructed to perform the search and includes (2) an object for shifting to a second screen but does not include (3) a link to a download page of a print plug-in that is not installed, and displays, in response to an instruction given to the object in the first screen, the second screen which includes (3) the link to the download page of the print plug-in that is not installed.

A system which enables an image forming apparatus to give priority to executing a job sent from a mobile information terminal. The mobile information terminal sets an operating mode of the image forming apparatus. When a near-field wireless communication is started by the mobile information terminal coming close to the image forming apparatus, information on the set operating mode is sent to the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus provides operating mode shifting control based on the information on the operating mode sent from the mobile information terminal by the near-field wireless communication.

A networked printer system includes a first printer coupled to a network. The first printer includes a first printer address book having a plurality of address book contents that are located in a plurality of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Object Identifiers (OIDs). A second printer is coupled to the network. The second printer includes a processor, a communications device coupled to the processor, and a computer-readable medium coupled to the processor. An address book transferring engine is located on the computer-readable medium and includes computer-readable instruction that when executed connect to the first printer through the communications device over the network using SNMP, retrieve the plurality of address book contents from the plurality of SNMP OIDs, and transfer the plurality of address book contents to a second printer address book that is associated with the second printer.

An image forming apparatus that functions as a client of a distributed file system is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: a distributed file system process part for mounting a file system of a server apparatus on the image forming apparatus to enable the image forming apparatus to access the file system of the server apparatus as the distributed file system of the image forming apparatus; and a storing process part for accessing the file system of the server apparatus and storing, in the file system, information that is stored in a storage unit used by the image forming apparatus.

An information processing apparatus comprises: a communication unit which performs short-range wireless communication with an external apparatus configured to provide a predetermined function; a first determination unit which determines, based on information obtained from the external apparatus by the communication unit, whether to perform authentication processing in order to utilize the predetermined function of the external apparatus; and an authentication unit which performs the authentication processing if the first determination unit determines to perform the authentication processing.

An information processing apparatus identifies, from among printers for each of which a first type of printer driver has been installed, a printer for which a second type of printer driver is installable. The information processing apparatus displays, as candidates for a printer for which the second type of printer driver is to be installed, printers in a search result, acquired from an operating system, from which printers for each of which a printer driver has been installed are excluded, and the identified printer.

An information processing apparatus instructs a plurality of print plug-ins having at least a printer search function to search for a printer and displays, if the plurality of print plug-ins are instructed to perform the search, a first screen which includes (1) a printer detected by search processing performed by the plurality of print plug-ins instructed to perform the search and includes (2) an object for shifting to a second screen but does not include (3) a link to a download page of a print plug-in that is not installed, and displays, in response to an instruction given to the object in the first screen, the second screen which includes (3) the link to the download page of the print plug-in that is not installed.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium stores computer-readable instructions, when executed by a processor of an information processing apparatus, causing the information processing apparatus to perform: receiving a parameter from a first other program different from the program; in response to receiving the parameter from the first other program, transmitting a scan execution command including the received parameter to a scanner through a communication interface of the information processing apparatus, the parameter being indicative of a setting value that is set for executing scan processing on the scanner; receiving mode selection information from a second other program different from the program and from the first other program; and in response to receiving the mode selection information from the second other program, converting the received mode selection information into a parameter, and transmitting a scan execution command including the converted parameter to the scanner through the communication interface.

An information processing system including at least one input-output device and performing a sequence of processes using electronic data that include image data and print data includes a hardware processor that executes a program so as to implement: an input-output service supply unit configured to perform a collaboration process of causing a hardware computer system implementing an external storage service to collaborate with the input-output device, a request data generation unit configured to generate request data bound for the input-output service supply unit based on metadata, and a request unit configured to request the input-output service supply unit to perform the collaboration process using the request data.