JP2002278896A - E-mail storing method and terminal device using the e- mail storing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an e-mail storing method for storing e-mail files stored temporarily in a cache memory in order of an e-mail file desired to be confirmed by a user. SOLUTION: In the case an e-mail file is newly written in the cache memory when a plurality of e-mail files are stored in the cache memory to be in a flowing state, a portion of the plurality of e-mail files that have been already stored in the cache memory is eliminated so as to preferentially leave e-mail files corresponding to a condition that corresponds to user preference.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an e-mail holding method for holding an e-mail and a terminal device using the e-mail holding method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for temporarily storing a received or read e-mail in a cache memory. The present invention relates to an e-mail holding method for storing e-mails and a terminal device using the e-mail holding method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent development of communication network technology and computer technology, the penetration rate of the Internet has become remarkable. With the widespread use of the Internet, the use rate of electronic mail for personally exchanging information has been increasing. In particular, regarding this e-mail, mobile phones and PHS (Personal Handyphone Sy
stem), the use rate of mobile phones and PHS has become very high in recent years, as the penetration rate of mobile phones and PHS is increasing.

[0003] Further, a terminal device for receiving such an e-mail is, for example, a nonvolatile memory for a cellular phone or the like, or a hard disk for a personal computer or the like for storing an e-mail file received from a mail server. A storage unit is provided. However, it takes time to access the storage unit in order to read and display the e-mail file from such a storage unit. Therefore, once the received e-mail file or the e-mail file read from the storage device is accessed at high speed, It is common to temporarily store in a possible cache memory.

[0004]

However, the capacity of the cache memory used for temporary storage as described above is as follows.
Since the storage capacity is smaller than the capacity of other storage units, there is a limit to the number of storages that can be performed. Therefore, when a new e-mail file is received from the mail server, the e-mail file that the user wants to confirm may be deleted from the cache memory. Therefore, in order to display the e-mail file to be confirmed, it is necessary to read the e-mail file again from the storage unit, and it takes a long time to display.

[0005] In view of such a problem, the present invention provides an electronic mail file temporarily stored in a cache memory.
An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail holding method for sequentially storing the e-mails in a state in which the user wants to confirm the information, and a terminal device using the e-mail holding method.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic mail holding method according to the present invention provides a method of storing an electronic mail file in a cache memory capable of temporarily storing data in a terminal device receiving the electronic mail file. In the e-mail holding method for temporarily storing a plurality of e-mail files, when an e-mail file is stored up to the upper limit of the memory capacity of the cache memory, a new e-mail file is stored in the cache memory. In this case, at least one of the e-mail files stored in the cache memory is deleted according to a predetermined condition.

In such an electronic mail holding method,
When the cache memory is in the flow state, when storing an e-mail file newly received from the mail server or an e-mail file newly read from the hard disk or the memory in the cache memory, according to predetermined conditions, it is unnecessary. The e-mail file to be deleted is preferentially deleted from the cache memory.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the predetermined condition is based on the content of an item recorded in a header of the electronic mail file. The electronic mail file to be deleted from the cache memory may be determined based on the transmission date and time.

Further, when there are a plurality of items set in the predetermined condition, priority is given to each item according to the user's preference, and the priority order is determined. The predetermined condition may be set in order from the highest item. That is, for example, the e-mail file to be deleted from the cache memory is determined based on the sender address name and the subject of the e-mail file, and when the sender address name is set to a higher priority, first, the sender address Attempts to remove unmatched names, and only attempts to remove unmatched subjects when all sender address names match.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an electronic mail file in which a part of the contents of the item recorded in the header portion of the electronic mail file is matched is preferentially left in the cache memory. For example, among the sender address names of the e-mail file, those that match only ".co.jp" may be left.

Further, the predetermined condition is set by inputting a part of the item content recorded in the header portion of the e-mail file to the terminal device. It may be done.

The terminal device according to claim 6 is the terminal device according to claims 1 to
By using the electronic mail holding method according to any one of claims 5 to 9, an electronic mail file corresponding to the capacity is temporarily stored in the cache memory.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the terminal device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a communication network system including the terminal device of FIG. 1 for transmitting and receiving electronic mail.

The terminal device 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes an arithmetic control unit 11 for controlling the operation of the terminal device 1 and performing data arithmetic processing,
A communication unit 12 for transmitting and receiving data to and from the outside; a storage unit 13 such as a hard disk or a non-volatile memory for storing software and data of various applications such as mailer software and browser software; A display unit 14 such as a display for displaying characters and images based on the input data; and an input unit 15 such as a key, a mouse, and a button for a user to input data by operating the data.
And a cache memory 16 for exchanging data with the arithmetic control unit 11 and temporarily storing data, and a bus line 17 for exchanging data between the blocks 11 to 15.

The communication network system of FIG. 2 including such terminal devices has a plurality of terminal devices 1-1 to 1-1.
n (corresponding to the terminal device 1 in FIG. 1), a mail server 2 for sending and receiving electronic mail through a wide area communication network 4 such as the Internet, and a plurality of terminal devices 1-1 to 1-1
1-n and a mail server 2, a communication network 3 for transmitting and receiving e-mails, and a wide area communication network 4. That is, the plurality of terminal devices 1-1 to 1-1
-N, the mail server 2 and the communication network 3 constitute a local area network system.

The operation of each unit when the communication network system is configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a diagram for illustrating an operation of receiving an e-mail file to the terminal device, and FIG. 4 is a diagram for temporarily storing the e-mail file in the cache memory when the terminal device processes the e-mail file. It is a figure for explaining operation.

<E-mail File Reception Operation>
An operation when the terminal device 1 receives an e-mail file will be described. First, the mail server 2 communicates via the wide area communication network 4 or the terminal device 1-k (k is 1 ≦
When an e-mail file is received from the terminal device 1-i (i is a natural number satisfying 1 ≦ i ≦ n) from the communication device 3 via the communication network 3, an e-mail file is received from a storage device (not shown) provided in the own device. The received e-mail file is stored in the storage area for the terminal device 1-i. Then, the terminal device 1-i activates the mailer software in the storage unit 13, connects to the mail server 2 through the communication network 3, and connects to the terminal device 1-i stored in the mail server 2.
When a request to send an e-mail file to the terminal device 1-i is made, the mail server 2 sends the stored header portion of each e-mail file to the terminal device 1-i to the terminal device 1-i.

In each header portion of the e-mail file,
The address of the sender, the address of the recipient, the address of the broadcaster, the subject of the mail, the date and time of transmission, and the like are recorded. When the terminal device 1-i receives the header portions of the plurality of e-mail files, the data representing the items of the sender, the subject of the mail, and the date and time of transmission included in the header portions are selected by the arithmetic control unit 11. Are temporarily stored in the cache memory 16 and stored in the storage unit 13.

As described above, when the items obtained from the header portions of the plurality of e-mail files transmitted from the mail server 2 are temporarily stored in the cache memory 16,
Each item obtained from the headers of the plurality of e-mail files selected by the arithmetic and control unit 11 is also sent to the display unit 14, and a table showing items of the sender, the subject of the e-mail, and the transmission date and time is displayed. The table showing the items of the sender, the subject of the e-mail, and the date and time of the transmission is previously stored in the mail server 2.
The item data of the sender, the subject of the mail, and the date and time of transmission are also displayed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the mail server 2
Terminal device 1-i in a storage device (not shown) provided in own device
When the e-mail files x to z are stored in the storage area for, the respective header portions xh to zh are transmitted to the terminal device 1-i. Now, in the e-mail file x, the address of the sender is xxxx.xxx.co.jp, the subject is x1, the transmission date and time is 21:20:03 on March 12, 2001, and the e-mail file y , The sender's address is yyyy.yyy.ne.jp, the subject is y1, the transmission date and time is 8:33:12 on March 13, 2001,
In the e-mail file z, the sender's address is zzzz.zzz.co.jp, the subject is z1, and the transmission date and time is 200.
It is 9:17:47 on March 13, 1 year.

Therefore, when the terminal device 1-i receives the headers xh to zh of the electronic mail files x to z by the communication unit 12, the arithmetic processing unit 11 sends the address and the subject of the sender from the headers xh to zh. And three items of the transmission date and time are read and displayed on the display unit 14 as a table.

When displayed as described above, the user operates the input unit 15 to specify an item recorded in the header portion of the e-mail file, whereby the e-mail file to be displayed can be specified. . At this time, the arithmetic control unit 11 specifies an e-mail file that the user wants to display, based on data representing items specified by the user. That is, it is specified by designating a column in which an item indicating an e-mail file to be displayed is described from the table shown on the display unit 14 shown in FIG. Then, the communication unit 12 requests the mail server 2 via the communication network 3 to transmit data representing the text of the e-mail file to be displayed by the user.

The mail server 2 receiving the transmission request for the body of the e-mail file stores the body of the e-mail file desired to be displayed on the terminal device 1-i in a storage device (not shown) provided in its own device. Read from the storage area for the terminal device 1-i, and read the terminal device 1 through the communication network 3.
Send to -i. When the terminal device 1-i receives the text of the e-mail file transmitted from the mail server 2 by the communication unit 12, the terminal device 1-i stores the text in the cache memory 16 through the arithmetic control unit 11 and causes the display unit 14 to display it. When the input unit 15 is operated and it is desired to store the text displayed on the display unit 14 in the storage unit 13,
The storage unit 13 together with the header of the e-mail file
Is stored in

<Temporary Storage Operation of E-mail File> Next, when the e-mail file transmitted to the terminal device 1 is received and the text is displayed on the display unit 14,
The operation for reading out the e-mail already received in the storage unit 13 and displaying the text on the display unit 14 will be described.

In the terminal device 1, when the mailer software stored in the storage unit 13 is activated and the input unit 15 is operated to request the display of the body of the e-mail file,
If the e-mail file to be displayed is an e-mail file already stored in the storage unit 13, the e-mail file is read from the storage unit 13, displayed on the display unit 14, and written into the cache memory 16. . If the e-mail file to be displayed is an e-mail file that has not been received, a request for transmission is sent to the mail server 2 and the e-mail file is sent to the mail server 2.
The data is received by the receiving unit 12 through the communication network 3, displayed on the display unit 14, and written in the cache memory 16.

When a plurality of electronic mail files are displayed on the display unit 14 in this manner, the cache memory 16
Will be stored. However, since the capacity of the cache memory 16 is small and limited, when the e-mail file is stored up to a predetermined capacity, it becomes impossible to store the e-mail file any more. Therefore, when the input unit 15 is operated, the e-mail file whose display is requested to be displayed on the display unit 14 is stored in the cache memory 16.
, It is necessary to delete the e-mail file already stored in the cache memory 16.

The setting of conditions for deleting an already-stored e-mail file from the cache memory 16 when the cache memory 16 enters the flow state will be described. It is assumed that a condition setting window A for setting a condition for deleting an e-mail file from the cache memory 16 in the currently activated mailer software is displayed on the display unit 14 as shown in FIG.

In the condition setting window A, when a new electronic mail file is to be written in the cache memory 16 in the flow state, the cache memory 16
3 shows a priority condition for leaving an e-mail file already stored. That is, first, it is set which of the three items of the sender's address name, subject, and transmission date and time described in the header portion of the e-mail file is to be used as the priority determination condition. In the case of FIG. 5, the determination condition is that the sender's address name has the highest priority, the subject has the second priority, and the transmission date and time has the third priority. It should be noted that the priorities of the judgment conditions are indicated by numerals in FIG.

Further, in the item of the address name of the sender, "? .Xxx.co.jp" is described as a judgment condition, and a part of the address name having ".xxx.co.jp" is described. The sender's email file takes precedence and the cache memory 16
Will be left. In the subject field, “? X Plan?” Is described, and an e-mail file having a subject having “X Plan” in a part thereof is preferentially left in the cache memory 16. Further, an e-mail file having a new transmission date and time is preferentially left in the cache memory 16 according to the item of the transmission date and time.

As shown in FIG. 5, the cache memory 16
When the condition for deleting the e-mail file from the e-mail file a is set as shown in FIG.
It is assumed that header parts ha to hd and body parts ma to md are stored in the cache memory 16.

Then, in the electronic mail file a,
The sender is aaaa.xxx.co.jp, the subject is “Making an X Plan”, and the transmission date and time is 9:37:32 on March 12, 2001.
Second, and in the email file b, the sender is bb
bb.xxx.co.jp, the subject is “Y plan draft”, the transmission date and time is 16:10:19 on March 12, 2001, and the sender is cccc.yyy.co in the e-mail file c. .j
p, subject is “Z-plan question”, transmission date and time is 2001
At 10:25:24 on March 12, 2001, in the e-mail file d, the sender is dddd.xxx.co.jp, the subject is “Matter of X Plan Summary”, and the transmission date and time is March 12, 2001.
It is 14:22:58 on the day.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, the e-mail file e is newly displayed on the display unit by being received from the mail server 2 via the communication network 3 by the reception unit 12 or read out from the storage unit 13. 14
When the header part he and the body text me are to be stored in the cache memory 16, first, the sender who is the first priority condition set in the condition setting window A in FIG. Is determined from the address name of Therefore, the data file c whose sender is cccc.yyy.co.jp is deleted from the cache memory 16.

In this e-mail file e, the sender is eeee.xxx.co.jp, the subject is “Details of X Plan”, and the transmission date and time is 9:03:46 on March 13, 2001.
Seconds. At this time, the e-mail file f
Is displayed on the display unit 14, and when the header part hf and the body text mf are to be stored in the cache memory 16, the address name of the sender is all ".xxx.c".
o.jp ”, the subject is judged.
The e-mail file b whose subject is “Y plan draft” is deleted from the cache memory 16.

Further, the electronic mail file f
, The sender is ffff.xxx.co.jp, the subject is “X Plan Question”, and the transmission date and time is March 1, 2001 at 10: 1.
It is 7 minutes and 02 seconds. At this time, the electronic mail file g is about to be displayed on the display unit 14, and
When the header part hg and the body text mg are to be stored in the cache memory 16, “.xxx.co.jp” is described in the sender's address name and “X plan” is described in the subject. Therefore, the transmission date and time are determined. Therefore, the oldest e-mail file a whose transmission date and time is 9:37:32 on March 12, 2001 is deleted from the cache memory 16.

When the electronic mail file stored in the cache memory 16 is managed in this manner, for example, the data amount of the newly stored electronic mail file is large, and the electronic mail file already stored in the cache memory 16 is large. When the data amount corresponds to several mail files, a plurality of e-mail files corresponding to the data amount of the newly stored e-mail file are set in accordance with the deletion condition set in the condition setting window A of FIG. Deleted.

It should be noted that, in the present embodiment, deletion is performed from the cache memory based on the sender's address name, subject, and transmission date and time. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It may be performed based on In addition, as described above, instead of receiving the text of the e-mail file from the mail server by selecting from the displayed table, the header and the text are received from the beginning, and the automatically set cache is set. The processing of the e-mail file in the cache memory may be performed according to the condition of deletion from the memory.

[0037]

According to the present invention, when the cache memory is in the flow state, the e-mail file newly received from the mail server or the e-mail file newly read from the hard disk or the memory is stored in the cache memory. At this time, an e-mail file expected to be displayed by the user in the future can be preferentially left in the cache memory. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently use a cache memory having a high access speed from the arithmetic processing unit.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a terminal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication network system for distributing electronic mail.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view for explaining an operation of receiving an electronic mail file to the terminal device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view for explaining an operation of temporarily storing an e-mail file in a cache memory when the terminal device of FIG. 1 processes an e-mail file.

FIG. 5 is a display example of a condition setting window.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1-1 to 1-n Terminal device 2 Mail server 3 Communication network 4 Wide area communication network 11 Operation control unit 12 Communication unit 13 Storage unit 14 Display unit 15 Input unit 16 Cache memory 17 Bus line

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail holding method for temporarily storing a plurality of e-mail files in a cache memory capable of temporarily storing data in a terminal device receiving an e-mail file. When a new e-mail file is to be stored in the cache memory when the e-mail file is stored up to the upper limit, at least one of the e-mail files stored in the cache memory according to a predetermined condition. E-mail holding method, characterized by deleting an e-mail. 2. The electronic mail holding method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined condition is based on item contents recorded in a header of the electronic mail file. 3. When there are a plurality of items set in the predetermined condition, priority is given to each item in accordance with the user's preference, and the predetermined condition is set in order from the item having the highest priority. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the electronic mail is stored. 4. The electronic mail file according to claim 2, wherein a part of the contents of the item recorded in the header portion of the electronic mail file is preferentially left in the cache memory. E-mail retention method described in. 5. The predetermined condition is set by inputting a part of the item content recorded in the header portion of the e-mail file to the terminal device. 4. The method for retaining e-mail according to 4. 6. A terminal for temporarily storing an e-mail file corresponding to its capacity in the cache memory by using the e-mail holding method according to any one of claims 1 to 5. apparatus.