JPH10293734A - Electronic mail managing method, and recording medium recorded with electronic mail management program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail managing method which manages the storage period of mails stored in a mail folder and prevents an unnecessary mail from being accumulated in an electronic mail system, and to provide a recording medium in which an electronic mail management program is recorded. SOLUTION: This electronic mail management device has a mail storage period setting means 3 that sets are storage period or processing of a due date and storage period passing time which is needed as a condition to store a mail, a mail storage period supervising means 5 which detects a mail that passes a storage period or a due date, and notifies it to a user or performs automatic deletion of the mail according to preliminarily designated processing of storage period passing time and a mail storage period resetting means 4 which resets a storage condition that is already designated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a method for managing a mail storage period in an electronic mail system and a recording medium on which an electronic mail management program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, a user who receives an e-mail
First, refer to the contents to determine whether the e-mail is necessary for you, save the necessary e-mails in a folder, and delete unnecessary e-mails at that time. However, the mail stored in the folder accumulates in the fog unless the user explicitly deletes it, and gradually reduces the disk space. Judgment was necessary, and unnecessary mail had to be deleted.

Conventionally, in a method of managing the retention period of mail in an electronic mail system, a process for deleting unnecessary mail is started, and a mail after a certain period of time is automatically deleted, so that unnecessary mail stored in a folder is deleted. A method of preventing e-mails and reducing the burden of managing stored e-mails has been used.

[0004] An example of a conventional mail storage period management method is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-95369 (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Technique 1). The method for managing the storage period of mail described in the prior art 1 starts a process for deleting unnecessary mail at regular time intervals, and the process refers to a user's folder to delete unnecessary mail. It is a mail management system that enables Conventional technology 1
Is a method of receiving an automatic deletion request of a user's e-mail and storing that effect, and a function of referring to e-mail in the user's mailbox from a terminal and storing the result of the reference. E-mail reference function and monitors e-mails of users who request automatic deletion at regular intervals.
It is composed of an e-mail automatic deletion function that automatically deletes e-mails whose expiration date has passed and that have been referenced. The condition of whether to make a deletion request is stored in the user management table by the automatic mail deletion specification function. In addition, the mail reference function saves that the user has referred to the mail in the user management table. Then the email automatic deletion function is activated periodically,
The user refers to the user management table and deletes the deletion request specified and referred mail from the user's folder.

Another example of a conventional method of managing the storage period of mail is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-199261 (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Technique 2). In the mail storage period management method described in the related art 2, a process for deleting unnecessary mail is started not according to a fixed period interval but according to a set start date and time condition. In the management method according to the prior art 2, if a process start date and time condition for deleting unnecessary mail and a condition of mail to be automatically deleted by the process are set in advance, the process becomes unnecessary when the start condition is satisfied. A process for deleting the mail is started, and the process deletes a mail that satisfies the condition of the previously specified automatic deletion mail from the user's folder.

[0006]

However, in the conventional e-mail management method, the deletion of the unnecessary e-mail specifying the automatic deletion request is not always performed at the time when the preservation period has elapsed. After that, the process is executed when a process for deleting unnecessary mail is started. If the start interval of the process is set to be long, a state occurs in which the mail is not deleted from the folder even though the storage period of the mail has elapsed.

If the process start interval is set to be short, a process for deletion is started unnecessarily even though there is no unnecessary mail to be deleted.

Further, in the prior art, mails not specified for automatic deletion are not managed, so that mails not specified for automatic deletion are stored in a folder. This requires the user to periodically refer to the mails in the accumulated folder and judge the necessity of the mails, thereby necessitating the work of organizing the mails. In these organizing operations, all mails existing in the folder are subjected to the organizing operation.

Therefore, one technical problem of the present invention is that, when storing mail stored in a folder, unnecessary mail is promptly deleted from the folder.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail management method and apparatus capable of preventing accumulation of unnecessary mail, and a recording medium on which an electronic mail management program is recorded.

Another technical problem of the present invention is to notify a user of a mail that is not automatically deleted when a storage period has elapsed and to prompt the user to judge the necessity of the mail again. Thus, the user can determine the necessity of the mail to be notified again and manage the storage period of the mail so that the mail stored in the folder can be arranged at any time. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium on which a mail management program is recorded.

[0011]

According to the present invention, it is necessary to set a storage period or a due date and a process to be performed when the storage period elapses, which is necessary as a condition for storing individual mails, and to set a process when the storage period or the due date elapses. Detecting the specified mail, notifying the user or automatically deleting the mail according to the processing when the pre-specified storage period has elapsed, and resetting the pre-specified storage conditions. Is obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, a mail storage period setting means for setting a storage period or a date and a process when the storage period has elapsed, which is necessary as a condition for storing each mail, a storage period or a date Email retention period monitoring means for detecting emails that have expired and notifying users or automatically deleting emails according to the processing when the retention period specified in advance has elapsed, and resetting the storage conditions already specified And a mail storage period resetting means for performing the operation.

According to the present invention, a storage period or a due date and a process when the storage period elapses, which are necessary as conditions for storing individual mails, are set. A storage medium storing an e-mail management program is provided which notifies a user or automatically deletes an e-mail according to a process when a pre-specified storage period has elapsed, and resets pre-specified storage conditions. can get.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram mainly showing an electronic mail management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, terminal 1, mail management means 2, mail storage period setting means 3, mail storage period resetting means 4, mail storage period monitoring means 5, timer means 6, management table 7, , A mail folder 8 are provided.

An electronic mail management apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a mail storage period setting unit 3, a mail storage period resetting unit 4, a mail storage period monitoring unit 5, and a management table 7. Have been.

The mail storage period setting means 3 sets a storage period or a due date and a process when the storage period has elapsed, which is necessary as a condition for storing the mail. The e-mail storage period monitoring means 5 detects an e-mail whose storage period or expiration date has passed, and notifies the user or automatically deletes the e-mail according to the processing at the elapse of the pre-specified storage period. Further, the mail storage period resetting means 4 resets the storage conditions specified already.

Next, a specific operation of the electronic mail management device of FIG. 1 will be described.

When storing the received mail in the mail folder 8, the user designates from the terminal 1 "retention period or due date" of the mail and "notification to the user or automatic deletion" as a process when the retention period has elapsed. . These pieces of information are notified to the mail storage period setting unit 3 via the mail management unit 2. When the user specifies a storage period as a storage condition, the reception time of the mail is also notified to the mail storage period setting means 3 at the same time.

Next, a specific storage condition setting process of the mail storage period setting means 3 of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the mail storage period setting means 3 having received the storage conditions stores the specified conditions in the management table 7 (step S11). If the user omits the storage condition, a default value set in advance is used as the condition of the mail. If the user specifies a storage period as the storage condition (YES in step S12), the storage date is calculated by adding the specified storage period to the mail reception time (step S13). Then, the timer is registered in the timer means 6 on the condition of the storage date, and when the specified storage date has passed, a request is made to notify the mail storage period monitoring means 5 (step S14).

The timer ID paid out when the timer is registered in the timer means 6 is stored in the management table 7 (step S15).

When the designated storage date has passed, the timer means 6 notifies the mail storage period monitoring means 5 of the timeout, and at the same time, notifies the timer ID of the timeout. There are a plurality of mail storage period monitoring means 5 for each time-out time, and a notification about a mail which has timed out at the same time is notified to the same mail storage time monitoring means 5.

Next, a specific processing when the storage period has elapsed by the mail storage period monitoring means 5 of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the mail storage period monitoring means 5 having received the time-out notification searches the management table 7 for the corresponding mail using the timer ID received as the notification information as a key, and stores the information of the storage condition of the mail. Acquire (Step S21). Then, referring to the processing after the elapse of the storage period, in the case of automatic deletion designation (step S2
If 2 is YES), the mail is deleted from the mail folder 8 at that time (step S23).

If the notification to the user has been specified (NO in S22), the mail is added to the list of the storage period elapsed mails (step S24). Then, if there are other mails for which the storage period has elapsed at the same time (when step S25 is YES), the same processing (steps S21 to S24) is performed on those mails.

If there is no other mail whose storage period has elapsed (NO in step S25), the list of mails whose storage period has elapsed is notified to the user by mail (step S26). After notifying the user, the information about those mails is deleted from the management table 7 (step S
27). The notified user checks the contents of the mail list, deletes unnecessary mail through the mail management means 2, and deletes the necessary mail according to the storage period or due date and the processing when the storage period has elapsed. Specify it again. It is also possible to change the storage period once set and the processing when the storage period has elapsed.

Finally, a specific storage period resetting process of the mail storage period resetting means 4 of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, first, the storage conditions for the mail stored in the management table 7 are updated (step S31). Next, when the storage period is specified, the storage date is calculated from the mail reception time (steps S32 and S33). On the other hand, if the storage period is not specified, the process directly proceeds to the next step 34. And
In step 34, the timer registration for the mail registered previously is deleted, a new storage date is designated, and the timer registration is performed again. Next, the timer ID paid out from the timer means 6 is stored in the management table 7 (step S35).

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By managing the storage period of the mail stored in the folder, the storage period has expired, and unnecessary mail is deleted immediately at that time, thereby preventing the accumulation of unnecessary mail in the folder. It is possible to provide a mail management method and device, and a recording medium on which an electronic mail management program is recorded.

Further, according to the present invention, the user is notified of a list of e-mails for which automatic deletion has not been designated at the elapse of the storage period, and prompted to judge the necessity of those e-mails. By performing the work of re-determining the necessity of the e-mail as needed, an e-mail management method and apparatus which does not need to periodically arrange all e-mails in a folder, and a recording medium on which an e-mail management program is recorded Can be provided.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an e-mail management method and apparatus capable of easily discriminating unnecessary e-mails and a recording medium on which an e-mail management program is recorded.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram mainly showing an electronic mail management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a storage condition setting process of a mail storage period setting unit in the electronic mail management device of FIG. 1;

3 is a diagram showing a flowchart of processing when a storage period has elapsed by a mail storage period monitoring unit in the electronic mail management device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a storage period resetting process of a mail storage period resetting unit in the electronic mail management device of FIG. 1;

[Description of sign]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal 2 E-mail management means 3 E-mail storage period setting means 4 E-mail storage period resetting means 5 E-mail storage period monitoring means 6 Timer means 7 Management table 8 E-mail folder 10 E-mail management device

Claims (3)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A storage period or due date and a process when a storage period has elapsed, which are necessary as conditions for storing individual mails, are set, and a mail whose storage period or due date has passed is detected and specified in advance. An e-mail management method comprising: notifying a user or automatically deleting an e-mail according to a process performed when a storage period has elapsed; and resetting an already specified storage condition. 2. A mail storage period setting means, which is necessary as a condition for storing individual mails, for setting a storage period or a date and a process when the storage period elapses, and detects a mail whose storage period or the date has passed. A mail storage period monitoring means for notifying the user or automatically deleting the mail in accordance with the processing when the storage period specified in advance has elapsed, and a mail storage period for resetting the storage conditions already specified. An e-mail management device, comprising: resetting means. 3. A storage period or a due date and a process when the storage period has elapsed, which are necessary as conditions for storing individual mails, are set, and a mail whose storage period or the due date has passed is detected, and a storage specified in advance is stored. A recording medium in which an e-mail management program is recorded, wherein a notification to a user or an automatic deletion of an e-mail is performed in accordance with a process at the elapse of a period, and an already specified storage condition is reset.