JPH04167840A - Management system for message not read in electronic conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute a timing of a read message when a message not read is deleted at a high speed by limiting a management object of the message not read back from a message to be registered at last to a prescribed number so as to minimize the data quantity as required. CONSTITUTION:Various information of a message such as message registration date, registration party and its content is generated to reference the information of a message management section 3 and a conference information management section 2. Number of unread messages (e.g. 1024) as a management object and a message number registered at present are compared. When the latter message number is more than 1024, each bit of delete message identification information is shifted to the left and '0' is added to a final bit. Thus, the final 1024 messages are always managed in the deleted message identification information. Then the data managed by the message management section 3 and the conference information management section 2 is revised by the managed message. Thus, the managed data of unread message is decreased.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) This invention manages messages accumulated for each theme in a magnetic disk of a computer, and registers and displays messages aperiodically. Concerning the efficient management of unread messages in an electronic conference system.

(Prior Art) One form of electronic conference system is one that stores messages on a host computer and accesses the host computer at any time to display or register the messages, similar to e-mail.

By the way, in this type of electronic conference system, it is necessary to manage messages that each user has not yet read (referred to as unread messages).

Conventionally, as a management method, for example, the registration date and time of the last registered message is displayed, and the date and time when the user last used it is displayed, and the user can check whether there are unread messages by comparing the two dates and times. There is also one that determines the range of unread messages.

However, such a management method has the drawback of requiring the user to take the effort of comparison and judgment.

Therefore, each user saves the number of the last message read on the computer for each conference they are participating in (a conference where unread messages are managed), and when the user next accesses the message. There is a method that tells you from where an unread message is coming from.

However, this management method has the following problems.

That is, in an electronic conference system, in order to differentiate it from an electronic bulletin board and to support discussion on an electronic conference, registered messages are generally managed in association with comments. Furthermore, due to the nature of the electronic conference system, the registration order of messages and comments is done aperiodically or by the user's artificial judgment. If it is displayed, there is a risk that unread messages may also be skipped.

This will be explained more specifically.

For example, as shown in FIG. 8, assume that messages and comments are registered in the order of ■ to ■. Here, if there are messages or registered conferences, and unread messages are displayed in order, they are displayed as ■-■-■-■-■. However, after ■ is displayed, a comment is registered, so if you display ■-■→■ and exit, the last message you read will be ■, and ■ and ■ will have been skipped. .

Therefore, in order to solve this situation, a method can be considered in which unread messages are managed by determining whether each message is a message that has already been read (referred to as a read message) or an unread message.

However, in general, electronic conferencing systems accumulate messages over a long period of time, so managing the unread information of all messages registered for all meetings attended by each user is difficult due to the amount of data. There is also a problem with the timing of marking unread messages as read when they are deleted.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the conventional method of managing unread messages in an electronic conference system leads to an enormous amount of data, and also makes it difficult to decide when to mark an unread message as read when it is deleted. There's a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for managing unread messages in an electronic conference system that can minimize the amount of data and quickly mark messages as read when they are deleted. There is a particular thing.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention for solving the above problems includes a message management section that accumulates and manages messages for each theme, and a conference that manages the number of messages for all held meetings. an information management section, a participation information management section that manages participation information for each user, such as the date of participation in a participating conference and the number of unread messages; a message processing section that registers, displays, and deletes messages; and a message processing section that registers, displays, and deletes messages; and a participation information update processing unit that updates participation information of an initiating user, the electronic conference system is characterized in that the management target of the unread messages is limited to a certain number starting from the last registered message. .

(Function) In the present invention, since the management target of unread messages is limited to a certain number starting from the last registered message, the amount of data is kept to the necessary minimum and the unread messages are deleted. The reading timing can be done quickly.

(Example) Hereinafter, details of embodiments of the present invention will be explained based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an electronic conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is the participation information management unit, which stores, for each user, the date of participation, type of participation (meeting administrator/general participant), number of unread messages, identification information of unread messages, etc. The data is stored in the data storage unit 4 and managed.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a conference information management unit, which stores and manages the number of messages registered for each conference established on the host computer, identification information of deleted messages, etc. in the data storage unit 4.

3 is a message management unit, which manages registered messages requested by the message processing unit 6, registration date, information on registrants and association with other messages, etc., and stores data in the data storage unit 4.
Accumulate and manage.

4 is a data storage unit consisting of, for example, a magnetic disk;
Accumulate various data such as participation information, meeting information, message information, etc.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a participation information update unit, which updates the number of unread messages and their identification information for a conference in which each user is participating, after starting the electronic conference system or at an arbitrary timing.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a message processing section, which in response to requests for message display, registration, deletion, etc., updates the data corresponding to the request to each of the management sections 1, 2.3.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a display input terminal, which is an input/output device through which the user requests message registration, deletion, display, etc.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of the data structure of the identification information of unread messages of the participation information management section 1.

As shown in the figure, the identification information of the unread message is the participating conference information 21. Participation date 22. Participation type: 23, number of unread messages: 24. Unread management first message number 25. Number of valid unread management data: 26. It consists of unread identification information 27.

The unread identification information 27 specifies, for example, one message from the last registered message to be managed as an unread message.
024 pieces are managed. Specifically, it consists of 1024 bits of bit information corresponding to each message, and in each bit, “0” indicates an unread message, and “1” indicates that the message is unread.
'' indicates that the message has already been read. However, the above bit information is not limited to 1024 bits, and may be determined depending on the system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the details of the data structure of the identification information of the deleted message of the conference information management section 2. As shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, the identification information of the deleted message includes various message management data as well as the final message number 31. It consists of deletion message identification information 32.

The deleted message identification information 32 has the same size as the unread identification information 27 shown in FIG.
” indicates a valid message, and “1” indicates a deleted message.

Next, various operations of the system of this embodiment will be explained.

First, the operation at the time of message registration will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

When various message information such as message registration date, registrant, content, etc. is created (S401), information in message management section 3 and conference information management section 2 is referred to (5402).
, the number of unread messages to be managed (10 in this example)
24) and the number of currently registered messages (S403).

When the number of currently registered messages is greater than 1024, the deletion message identification information 3 shown in FIG.
Shift each bit of 2 to the left and add "O" to the last bit (S404). Therefore, the last 1024 messages are always managed in the deleted message identification information 32.

Thereafter, the data managed by the message management section 3 and the conference information management section 2 is updated using the above message (S405).

Next, the operation when deleting a message will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, before deleting a message, it is checked whether the person who registered the message is the person who registered the message, the administrator, etc., and whether the message can be deleted is checked (S501).

Next, refer to the information in the conference information management section 2 and message management section 3 (5502), and check whether the message to be deleted is within the unread message management range (S503).
). This is done by checking whether the last message number 3 shown in FIG. 3 and the number of the message to be deleted are within the range of the 1024th message from the end.

Then, the message to be deleted or the unread message -]〇
− If the message is within the management range, set the bit position of the deletion message identification information 32 corresponding to the message to be deleted to “1”.
to indicate that it is a deleted message (S
504).

After this, the message is actually deleted (S505).

Next, the operation when displaying a message will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the requested message is retrieved from the message management section 3 and displayed (S601).

Next, please refer to the data from the participation information management section 1 (5602).
), it is checked whether the message to be displayed is within the unread message management range (S803). This is done by checking whether the message number of the message to be displayed is within the number of valid unread management data 26 shown in FIG.

If the message number of the message to be displayed is within the number of valid unread management data 26, the position of the corresponding bit of the unread identification information 27 shown in FIG. 2 is set to "1" to indicate that the message has been read. (S604).Furthermore, "1" is subtracted from the information of the number of unread messages, 24.

Thereafter, the data managed by the participation information management section 1 is updated with the contents set as described above (SeO2).

Next, the operation when updating unread information will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

Participation information is sequentially referenced from the participation information management unit 1 for each participating conference (5701), and the following processing is performed for all participating conferences.

First, the deleted message is marked as read (S702).

This is done by logically ORing the unread identification information 27 shown in FIG. 2 with the deleted message identification information 32 shown in FIG. 3, and updating the unread identification information 27 shown in FIG. 2 based on the result.

Next, the number of registered messages is referenced by referring to the data shown in FIG. 3 from the conference information management unit 2 (S703).
.

Next, check whether a new message has been registered (
S704). This allows you to check whether new messages have been registered since the last time you updated your participation information.
The unread management first message number 25 shown in the figure, the unread management effective data number 26, and the last message number 31 shown in Fig. 3.
This is done by comparing and determining the data. Specifically, the value obtained by adding the unread management first message number 25 and the number of unread management valid data 26 is compared with the final message number 3], and if the final message number 31 is larger, it is determined that there is a new message. I'll decide.

Then, if a new message is registered, participation information is updated (S705). That is, the number of unread messages shown in FIG. 2 is 24. Unread management first message number 25. Number of valid unread management data: 26. The data of unread identification information 27 is
It is updated in accordance with the deletion message identification information 32 shown in the figure. Specifically, when the final message number is 1024 or less, the number of new messages is added to the number of unread messages 24 and the number of valid unread management data 26, respectively. Note that the unread identification information 27 is initially cleared to "0" and the corresponding bit position of the new message is "0", that is, unread, so there is no problem. On the other hand, the final message number is 102
If it is larger than 4, in addition to the above-mentioned processing below 1024, the unread management first message number 25 is set to the final message number "1024", the unread identification information 27 is shifted to the left by the number of new messages, and the new messages are Put “0” into the corresponding bit.

In this way, in the system of this embodiment, unread messages are managed 102 times from the last registered message.
By setting the number to four, it is possible to reduce the management data of unread messages. Furthermore, when a message that has not been read yet is deleted, it is possible to quickly mark the message as read.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the amount of data can be suppressed to the necessary minimum and the timing of marking an unread message as read when it is deleted can be performed at high speed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an electronic conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of the data structure of identification information of unread messages of the participation information management section shown in FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the details of the data structure of the identification information of the deleted message of the conference information management section shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation at the time of message registration.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when deleting a message, FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when displaying a message, FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when updating unread information, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the problems of the prior art. 1. Participation information management department, 2. Conference information management department, 3.
...Message management section, 4...Data storage section, 5...
・Participation information update unit, 6...Message processing unit, 7...
・Display input terminal. Applicant Toshiba Corporation Patent Attorney Sasa Suyama - Figure 1 ■ ■

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A message management section that stores and manages messages for each theme; a conference information management section that manages the number of messages for all conferences held; and a conference information management section that manages the number of messages for all conferences held, and the participation dates and unread messages of the conferences that each user is participating in. An electronic conference system equipped with a participation information management unit that manages participation information such as number of participants, a message processing unit that registers, displays, and deletes messages, and a participation information update processing unit that updates participation information of a startup user at startup. A method for managing unread messages in an electronic conference system, characterized in that the number of unread messages to be managed is limited to a certain number starting from the last registered message.