JPH03270438A - Facsimile mail control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the efficiency and reliability of a multimedia mail device by coupling and simultaneously trasmitting plural mail information control files when a facsimile mail is transmitted to the same destination. CONSTITUTION:A mail transfer control part 11 stores information (distribution time or destination, etc.) designated from the requesting source of the mail into a mail control table 15 and really executes control for transferring the mail at the designated time. In such a case, when the mail control table 15 recognizes that the plural various mails have been transferred to the same destination, those plural mails are coupled and the transmission is controlled by a transmission control part 12. At the time of transmission, a transmission starting page is designated and when the transmission is finished, the transmission end page or the number of really transmitted pages is announced from the transmission control part 12 to the mail transfer control part 11 and set into a corresponding area provided in the telegraphic message header information of a mail information control file 13 by the mail transfer control part 11. Thus, the efficiency and the reliability can be improved in the case of working the mail and transmitting the facsimile mail.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [II Required] A facsimile mail management system in a multimedia mail device that processes facsimile data The object of the present invention is to improve the efficiency and reliability of a multimedia mail device that processes facsimile data.

The email management department will respond to the received facsimile email.
Create an email information management file, and each email information management file has 3 total files.

Ladder information to the message including the total number of pages and transmission start/end pages, and the information file name in which the email information is stored are set, and each information file has page information such as data type, data length, etc., and the data body. The mail transfer control unit uses the mail management table in which the conditions requested by the requester are stored, and performs transfer control by combining the above mail information management/ring files for multiple emails that meet the conditions. executes email transmission under the control of the email transfer control unit, manages the sending page, and notifies the email management unit, and the email management unit updates the contents of the message header information in the email information management file based on the sending page information. to steal.

[Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a facsimile mail management system in a multimedia mail device that processes facsimile data.

In recent years, research has been conducted into providing services using multimedia mail devices that handle multimedia such as audio, two images, and facsimile.

Among such multimedia mails, facsimile mail information has conventionally been transmitted using a simple method, resulting in various inconveniences, and improvements are desired.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, fufushigori mail information has been managed in a mailbox within a multimedia mail device. In most cases, the management method at this time is to add a management number to each piece of mail information and manage that number. If one management number is assigned to one email, the management of email information is insufficient.

[Problem B that the invention attempts to solve] According to the above-mentioned conventional method, there are problems as follows.

■With the conventional technology, it is only possible to manage e-mails in units of managed e-mails, so it is not possible to specify the sending start page when sending facsimile e-mails.

■If an error occurs while sending a facsimile email, you will not know how many pages have been sent, so you will have to start over from the first page when resending.

That is, in the past, only information about "transmission completed J" or "transmission midway error J" was available.

■With conventional technology, email information could only be managed in units of emails, so email information could not be processed. For this reason, even if there are emails from multiple requesters to the same person, it is not possible to send the multiple emails at the same time.

Due to these drawbacks, conventional multimedia mail that handles factor data is inferior in terms of efficiency and reliability.

An object of the present invention is to improve the efficiency and reliability of a multimedia mail device that handles facsimile data.

[Means to solve the problem] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle configuration of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 10 is a mail management section, 11 is a mail transfer control section, 12 is a transmission control section, 13 is a mail information management file, 14 is an information file, and 15 is a mail management table.

The present invention provides an e-mail information management file for each e-mail that includes a display of the file in which e-mail attributes and information are stored, and manages the information by storing it in one or more information files, and the header of each e-mail information management file. Information for managing pages is provided in the mail to control sending operations, and multiple mail information management files are combined and sent together when sending to the same destination.

[Operation] The mail management section 10 creates the mail information management file 13 when one mail is received from the requester (or when it is created within the multimedia mail device). The content of the email can be one or more (for emails with a long amount of information)
An information file 14 is created and stored therein. This email information management file 13 is an information file 14 that stores message header information and email information for each email.
It consists of the name of

As the message header information, an area is provided to store the total number of information files that the email has, the total number of pages, and other page information. Information (delivery time, delivery destination, etc.) is stored in the mail management table 15, and when the actually designated time comes, control is performed to transfer the mail. In this case, when it is determined from the mail management table 15 that a plurality of different mails are to be transferred to the same destination, the transmission control section 12 performs transmission control on combining the plurality of mails. At the time of transmission, the transmission start page is specified, and when the transmission is completed, the transmission end page, the actual number of transmitted pages, etc. are notified from the transmission control section 12 to the mail transfer control section 11, and the mail transfer control section 11 receives the above-mentioned mail information. It is set in the corresponding area provided in the message header information of the management file 13.

These page information are used when retransmitting after the initial transmission is interrupted due to a failure or the like.

[Example] Figure 2 is a system configuration diagram in which the present invention is implemented; Figure 3 is a configuration diagram of a mail management table; Figure 4 is a diagram of a mail information management file; and Figure 5 is a diagram showing the contents of message header information. Figure 6 shows the structure of the temporary file and the contents of the facsimile page information, Figure 7 shows the processing flow for sending multiple files, and Figure 8 shows the information management file when combining multiple emails. FIG.

In FIG. 2, 20 is a multimedia mail device that handles Funakushi 5 data, and is composed of a minicomputer and has an operating system (O3) 21.
．． Mailbox for managing emails 23. An application (program) 22 that controls message header information and a driver 24 that controls data transfer via the bus 28
etc. are provided. Furthermore, the communication control unit 25 includes two components: data communication hardware 27 that executes sending and receiving of email data with other terminal devices via a communication network, and firmware 2 that manages page counts of facsimile data.
6 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 3, the application 22 (FIG. 2)
The mail management table on the memory (not shown) used by
The facsimile email number (N
o, ), various information such as reception time, delivery time, mail path name, and delivery destination ID (identification number) are stored.

FIG. 4 shows an information management file for mail (facsimile mail) requested to be sent by the sender, and is stored in a memory (not shown) managed by the mailbox 23.

In this example, two information management files, mail information 1 and mail information 2, are provided, and these mails correspond to mail numbers 000001 and 000002 in FIG. 3.

Message header information provided in the email management information in Figure 4 (
16 bytes) is shown in FIG.

The "mail number" of 0 to 3 bytes of the message header information in FIG. 5 is a number assigned to each mail. The next 4 bytes "total number of files" is the number of temporary files (a fixed amount of files in which mail information is stored) that exist in one email, and is determined when the email is created and is determined by the 9th "number of files".
The "total number of pages" is the total number of facsimile pages that exist in one email, and this is also a number determined when the email is created. After that, the "transmission start page" is the facsimile transmission start page specified when sending facsimile mail, and the primary "transmission end page" and "actual number of transmitted pages" are the communication control unit (second Figure 2
This is the number that is notified and set from 5).

Next, the structure of the temporary file stored in the information management file and the facsimile repage information will be explained with reference to FIG.

As shown in Figure 6A, one temporary file stores multiple sets of facsimile (displayed by FAX) page information and corresponding data of a certain length (facsimile data). , such temporary files are composed of one or more, and are accessed by the temporary file name. The contents of the Fatuji reply page are shown in B, and the first "data type" is handled differently depending on the type of email data (facsimile, voice, etc.), and the "data length" is 1 data. represents the size of

Since data is sent and received from the line via the communication control unit's firmware (26 in Figure 2), there is a maximum value for the data that can be sent and received at one time. It must be done separately. Therefore, the data in the temporary file is displayed with "data divisions".The data divisions are: initial data, intermediate data, final data, and 4 without division.
The zero-order "page number" using the type indicates the page number of the facsimile data, and the size of the data of the facsimile page is not constant and may exceed the above-mentioned maximum value in "r page division". At that time, in addition to the data division described above, a facsimile page division is required. The classification is the first data.

Four types are used: intermediate data, final data, or no division.

The processing flow for transmitting a plurality of files shown in FIG. 7 will be explained with reference to FIG. 8. FIG. 8 shows an information management file when multiple mails are combined.

This process is executed by the application (FIG. 2 22). When processing starts and the mail management table (Figure 3) is checked at a certain time, mail 1 to mail p (
It is identified that multiple emails (p is an integer of 1 or more) should be delivered to the same delivery destination (Mr. A) at the same delivery time (8th
Figure 80).

This email 1, email 2. . . . have the number of temporary files N, Nl . . . and each temporary file has n 1 + nt pages of facsimile data.

Next, combine email l to email p to make the total number of emails p.
(ibid. 81). This situation is shown in FIG. 8, where mails to be delivered 1. The information management files of each mail such as mail 2, etc. are combined, information on the total number of mails to be delivered at the same time is set, and then each information management file is sequentially arranged.

Next, secure register i and set its contents to p.
2) Next, subtract 1 from the contents of register i to determine whether i has become negative.84) If no, read the sending start page of the message header of mail i and manage it with mail i. The temporary file is opened and facsimile page information is searched up to the number of pages specified in the transmission start page (86). When the data is searched, the data is sent to the line (87), and the data is sent sequentially until the data in the temporary file is exhausted (8B).
. If there are still temporary files managed by Mail i, open the primary temporary file (8
9.90) Transmit in the same way. When all temporary files of mail i have been sent, the value of register i is set to -
1, performs similar transmission control, and registers i
When the value of becomes negative, the actual number of sent pages is received from the firmware (Fig. 2, 26), and the sent end page and the actual number of sent pages are written in the corresponding message header information of the mail information management file (the same 85).

In this case, the number of sent pages can be counted using the facsimile page information in the temporary file.
Even if an error occurs during facsimile transmission, it is possible to retransmit from the facsimile page at which the error occurred by using the information of the final transmitted page and the actual number of transmitted pages stored in the message header information at the time of retransmission. The count of sent pages is based on the facsimile page information (in the temporary file)
This can be done using firmware that checks the contents of the data and actually sends the data to the line.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, in a multimedia mail device that handles facsimile data, it is possible to improve the efficiency and reliability of mail processing and facsimile mail transmission.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a diagram of the principle configuration of the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagram of the system configuration in which the invention is implemented, Figure 3 is a diagram of the configuration of a mail management table, Figure 4 is a diagram of the configuration of a mail information management file, and Figure 5 is a diagram of the configuration of a mail information management file.
Figure 5 shows the contents of the message header information. Figure 6 shows the structure of the temporary file and the contents of the facsimile page information. Figure 7 is a processing flow diagram for sending multiple files. Figure 8 shows how to send multiple emails. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an information management file when merging. In Figure 1. 10: E-mail management section 11: E-mail transfer control section 12: Transmission control section 13: E-mail information management file 14: Information file 15: E-mail management table System configuration diagram in which the present invention is implemented Fig. 2 E-mail N: Structure of embedded table figure? g3 Figure Temporary file (byte) Facsimile page information Mail information ■ W-buried file a bottom opening Figure 4 Temporary file's 41 precepts and contents of facsimile page information □ Whistle indicating 6 Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a facsimile mail management system in a multimedia device, a mail management unit (10) creates a mail information management file (13) for received facsimile mail, and creates a mail information management file (13) for each mail. In 13), message header information including the total number of files, total number of pages, transmission start/end pages, and information file name in which email information is stored are set, and each information file (14) is set with data type, Page information such as the data length and the data body are stored, and the mail transfer control unit (11) uses the mail management table (15) that stores the conditions requested by the requester to transfer the above-mentioned mails to multiple mails that meet the conditions. The information management files are combined to perform transfer control, and the transmission control unit (12) executes email transmission under the control of the email transfer control unit, manages the sending page, notifies the email management unit (10), and performs email management. The facsimile mail management method is characterized in that the content of message header information in a mail information management file is updated based on transmission page information.