JPH09223052A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the operability/industriality and to easily and surely utilize compressed and transmitted data again. SOLUTION: An identifier expressing the format of file data and a program for compressing and restoring the file data in the format expressed by this identifier are described in a compression table 31 stored in a storage part 30. When transmitting the file data, to which the identifier is given, while using a local network and while referring to the compression table 31, the file data stored in a file input/output part 40 are compressed by the selected compression program under the control of a control part 10. These compressed file data and the restoration program are transmitted through a network part 50 while being attached to mail. Since the file data are compressed by any optimum method corresponding to their characteristics, the efficiency in data transmission/ reception can be improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail apparatus such as a facsimile machine, and for example, a personal computer or a workstation equipped with electronic mail software, or an electronic mail apparatus capable of exchanging data with these apparatuses. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electronic mail apparatus can generally describe only the text information in the text of an electronic mail. When sending data that cannot be represented by text information such as figures, tables, etc., it is common to attach the file to the text and send it in its file format without expanding it into the text. At that time, the file format data has a high degree of redundancy, and unnecessarily increases the data amount of the entire mail. A program that compresses this is also provided, but a single compression method cannot compress files with various properties effectively.

FIG. 4 shows a circuit configuration block of, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-28159, "Comprehensive Document Editing and Transfer Device", which solves this problem. This conventional example is a central processing unit 11
1, memory 112, input control unit 113, display control unit 11
4, an external storage unit 115, and a communication control unit 116, and is connected to another transfer device via a communication network.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the operation of the "total document edit transfer apparatus" having the above-mentioned configuration. In this conventional example, attention is paid to the identifier indicating the nature of the data, the compression method is changed for each identifier (S100), the compression efficiency of the entire data transmission is increased, and the file transfer time is shortened. This technique can also be used for electronic mail devices.

[0005]

However, the first problem of the electronic mail apparatus to which the above conventional technique is applied is as follows.
If there is no program to restore the compressed file data on the receiving side, it cannot be restored. The second problem is that in order to restore the received file,
A complicated procedure for the user to select and execute a restoration program that matches the identifier is required. In any of the above problems, the compression method is unique to each program, and further, there is a problem in that it cannot be substituted by another restoration program.

The rapid progress and spread of personal computers in recent years have created various new application programs and data formats. Along with this, the types of compression / decompression programs will continue to increase, and the above problems will become apparent.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail device which is improved in operability / industriality and can easily and surely reuse compressed file data.

[0008]

In order to achieve such an object, the electronic mail apparatus of the present invention comprises a storage means for storing a compression table, a file input / output means for storing file data, and a connection to a local network. The compression table has a network means for performing the operation and a control means for controlling the mail transmission / reception operation, and the compression table describes an identifier indicating the format of the file data and a program for compressing and decompressing the file data in the format represented by this identifier When sending the file data with the assigned identifier using the local network, compress the file data with the selected compression program by referring to the compression table and attach the compressed file data and the restoration program to the mail. The feature is that it is transmitted.

Further, it is preferable that the control means restores the file data by using the restoring program when receiving the mail attached with the compressed file data and the restoring program via the local network.

Further, when there is only one compressed file data and one decompression program, the decompression program identifier is irrespective of the type of the program.
If there is more than one compressed file data and decompression program with a code indicating only that it is a decompression program, then the combined decompression file that describes the correspondence between the compressed file data and the decompression program is also mailed. It is recommended to attach it to.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of an electronic mail apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 3, there is shown an embodiment of the electronic mail apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the electronic mail apparatus according to this embodiment. This e-mail device
It is realized using a personal computer. The electronic mail apparatus includes a control unit 10 that controls the overall operation, a display unit 20 that uses a monitor display, an operation unit 21 that uses a keyboard and a mouse, a storage unit 30 that uses a random access memory, a hard disk, and the like. It is configured to include a used file input / output unit 40 and a network unit 50 for connecting to a local area network. Furthermore, a compression table 31 is stored in the storage unit 30.

The control unit 10, which is a component of the electronic mail device configured as described above, is a functional unit that controls the operation of the entire electronic mail device. The user uses the operation unit 21 to input an operation command for the electronic mail device, and the control unit 10 receives this operation command signal to execute the operation. The basic operation of an electronic mail device is to send and receive data.

The display unit 20 is a so-called monitor display unit, and the user operates the operation unit 21 while viewing the display unit 20 to perform operations for sending and receiving electronic mail. Storage unit 3
An example of the structure of the compression table 31 stored in 0 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the compression table 31 used in the electronic mail apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a file data identifier name 60, a compression program name 61 optimal for compression of this file data, and a file compressed by this compression program. The name 62 of the restoration program for restoring the data to the original state is formed as a set. Using this compression table 31, the data to be transmitted is compressed by the compression program, and the compressed reception data is expanded and restored by the decompression program.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation example when the electronic mail device of this embodiment sends and receives an electronic mail with file data attached. The operation when the electronic mail device sends and receives an electronic mail with file data attached will be described below with reference to this drawing.

In step S11, the user uses the operation unit 21 while looking at the display unit 20 to perform an operation for sending and receiving electronic mail. The control unit 10 receives an operation signal from the operation unit 21 operated by the user and performs the following operation. First, in step S12, it is determined whether the user operation is transmission or reception, and if it is transmission (S12 / YES), the presence or absence of an attached file is confirmed (S13). If there is an attached file (S13 / YES), it is checked in step S14 whether or not the identifier name of the attached file is registered here using the identifier name 60 of the file data of the compression table shown in FIG.

If registered (S15 / YES), the optimum compression program name is extracted from the compression program name 61 of the compression table in step S16, and the compression program is executed to create compressed file data. In step S17, the compressed file data and the program file for decompression are prepared, and this is attached to the mail text and transmitted (S18). At this time, if there is one attached file designated by the user, the identifier of the program file for decompression is not the original identifier of the program, for example, “EXE” indicating the execution format, but the attached compressed data. “REC” indicating that the program is a restoration program is used. If there are a plurality of attached files, a restoration combination file is created and attached together (S17). The restoration combination file stores the identifier of the attached file and the name of the restoration program as a pair, and "CMB" is used as the identifier.

When receiving (S12 / NO), step S2
1. If it is determined in step S22 and step S23 that the attached file identifier is "REC" or "CMB", it is determined that the compressed file and the restoration program file are attached. In S24, the compressed file is restored to the state before being compressed by executing this decompression program, and this file is displayed again to the user as an attached file (S25).

According to the electronic mail apparatus of the above-mentioned embodiment, it has the compression table in which the identifier representing the data format and the program most suitable for compressing and decompressing the data of the format represented by this identifier are described. When transmitting the file data to which the identifier is added, the file data is compressed by the optimum compression program selected by referring to the compression table, and the compressed file data and the decompression program are attached and the mail is transmitted.

On the other hand, the e-mail device on the receiving side confirms the identifier of the file attached to the mail, and when it recognizes that the compressed file and the file of the decompression program are the attached mail, it determines a predetermined value for the compressed file. Run the restore program to decompress the file data,
Notify the user of this after restoring the original file.
This enables efficient sending and receiving of emails.

Further, when a mail attached with the compressed file data and the decompression program is received from another electronic mail device, the decompression program can automatically restore the file data. This can improve the operability of sending and receiving mail.

Further, when there is one compressed file data and one decompression program, an identifier of the decompression program is given regardless of the type of the decompression program. Also,
When transmitting a plurality of compressed file data, the compressed combination file and the decompression combination file in which the correspondence of the decompression program is described are attached together. This makes it possible to prevent the transmission data from becoming redundant.

The above embodiment is an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0024]

As is apparent from the above description, the electronic mail apparatus of the present invention includes an identifier indicating the format of file data in a compression table and a program for compressing and decompressing file data in the format represented by this identifier. Describe. When sending the file data with this identifier using the local network, compress the file data with the compression program selected by referring to the compression table, and send the compressed file data and the decompression program attached to an email. To do. Therefore, the file data can be compressed by an optimum method suitable for the characteristics of the file data, and the efficiency of data transmission / reception can be improved.

Further, it is not necessary to prepare a program for restoring the compressed data, the original file data can be easily obtained without performing the restoring operation, and the deterioration of the operability due to the data compression can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment when an electronic mail apparatus of the present invention is realized by using a personal computer.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a configuration content of a compression table applied to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of transmitting / receiving an electronic mail.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional comprehensive document edit / transfer device.

5 is a flowchart showing an operation example of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 control unit 20 display unit 21 operation unit 30 storage unit 31 compression table 40 file input / output unit 50 network unit 60 file data identifier name 61 compression program name 62 decompression program name

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing a compression table, a file input / output unit for storing file data, a network unit for connecting to a local network, and a control unit for controlling a mail transmission / reception operation. An identifier representing the format of the file data and a program for compressing and decompressing the file data in the format represented by the identifier are described in the compression table, and the file data to which the identifier is added is written using the local network. An electronic mail device, characterized in that, when transmitting, the file data is compressed by a compression program selected by referring to the compression table, and the compressed file data and a decompression program are attached to the mail and transmitted. 2. The control means restores the file data using the restoration program when receiving a mail attached with the compressed file data and the restoration program via the local network. The electronic mail device according to claim 1. 3. When the compressed file data and the decompression program are each one, the decompression program identifier has a code indicating only the decompression program regardless of the type of the decompression program. The electronic mail device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail device is provided. 4. When there are a plurality of compressed file data and decompression programs, a decompression combination file that describes the correspondence between the compressed file data and decompression programs is attached to the mail together. The electronic mail device according to claim 1 or 2.