JP2001350698A - Electronic mail acquiring method and device, and information displaying method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail acquiring method capable of shortening the time for the intention decision by a user to acquire a desired electronic mail. SOLUTION: A processing means 100 interprets the information of an electronic mail taken out from a mail box, recognizes the attributes as the information indicating the type of the mail, e.g. the degree of importance of the mail, whether it has been read or not yet, and whether it can be displayed on a terminal or not, and makes the recognized attributes correspond to the information indicating the electronic mail, e.g. the identification number of the electronic mail to manage them. The information managed by the processing means 100 is outputted by an output means 80.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for acquiring an e-mail from an e-mail storage device for storing e-mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an apparatus for managing transmitted and received e-mails is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-125151. In the apparatus disclosed in this publication, a title of an e-mail list is displayed. Displays the mail transmission information such as the transmission date, sender or recipient, and displays only the mail selected by the user from the displayed list of mail transmission information (mail body and its mail transmission information). Output to This makes it possible to see the mail text at a glance.

[0003]

However, according to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-125151, a list of mail transmission information can be displayed. It was not possible to display information necessary for the user to make a decision to read / not read the e-mail, such as whether the text is an important mail text or not. Therefore, it was extremely difficult for the user to make a decision to read / not read the e-mail only from the mail transmission information displayed in the list.

An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail acquisition method that can reduce the time for a user to make a decision to acquire a desired e-mail.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an electronic mail acquiring method for acquiring an electronic mail from an electronic mail storage device for storing electronic mail.
The identification information of the e-mail stored in the e-mail storage device and status information as attribute information of the e-mail are displayed, and a desired e-mail is specified based on the displayed status information. The electronic mail main body is obtained from the electronic mail storage device.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the identification information of the electronic mail stored in the electronic mail storage device and the status information (for example, information indicating whether or not the mail is unread) as the attribute information of the electronic mail are displayed. When a desired e-mail is designated based on the status information, the designated e-mail body is obtained from the e-mail storage device.

According to the present invention, a user can specify a desired e-mail by designating the identification information based on the state information among the identification information of the displayed e-mail and the state information as the attribute information of the e-mail. Can be specified.

[0008]

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

First, prior to the description of the configuration of the e-mail management device according to the present invention, an example of the configuration of a network system having the device will be described. FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the network system.

[0010] In the figure, the network system comprises:
A mail server 210, a workstation 220 that accesses the mail server 210, and a communication server 240 that communicates with the terminal 230 are each connected to a network 250.

The mail server 210 has a mailbox corresponding to the user, and electronic mail addressed to the user is delivered to the corresponding mailbox. Message ID (identification information) uniquely determined for the delivered e-mail
Is assigned, the user specifies which mail to handle (want to access) by specifying the message ID when handling the electronic mail.

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

In FIG. 1, the e-mail management device includes a pre-processing unit 10, a search processing unit 20, cache databases 30, 40, an information extracting unit 50, an interpretation processing unit 60, a storage processing unit 70, and a display unit 80. It is configured.

The cache database 30 includes information indicating the importance of the mail, information indicating whether the mail is unread, information indicating whether the mail can be displayed on the terminal, and information indicating whether the mail is in a state in which the mail can be deleted. , E-mail information common to each e-mail, such as an e-mail distribution report and attachment, is registered as a database. This database 3
For example, 20 pieces of e-mail information are read from the mail server, and when a list of these e-mails is created, identification numbers indicating the respective e-mails, that is, absolute numbers and relative numbers are associated with each other. The registered map table (not shown) is registered as a mail attribute. A specific example of the database in the database 30 will be described later. In the cache database 40, e-mail information about each e-mail, such as the e-mail sender, transmission date and time, and subject, is registered as a database for each e-mail. Note that the attribute indicating the type of the e-mail and the information indicating the e-mail are stored in each cache database in association with each other, and the main body (content) of the e-mail is not stored. . That is, in the database registered in each cache database, an attribute as information indicating the type of e-mail and information indicating the e-mail are registered as cache information so that the information of the e-mail can be quickly searched. It is. Therefore, it is not necessary to access the mail server for the information of the e-mail obtained by accessing once, and it is sufficient to access the cache database.

When a user specifies an attribute and receives a predetermined processing request, the preprocessing unit 10
Is inquired about whether the attribute information is registered in the database. The search processing unit 20 searches the cache databases 30 and 40 based on the attribute information from the preprocessing unit 10, and stores the search result in the preprocessing unit 10.
Is returned as a return value. That is, when the attribute information is registered, the fact that the attribute information is registered and the message ID registered corresponding to the attribute information are returned. On the other hand, if the attribute information has not been registered, the fact that the attribute information has not been registered and the absolute address (message ID) registered in the map table (not shown) stored in the cache database 30 are returned. This is because the mail server must be searched to check whether the attribute is included in the attribute of each mail listed.

The pre-processing unit 10 receiving the search results from the search processing unit 20 outputs the message ID to the information reading unit 50 if the search result is not registered and the message ID is a message ID. If it is registered and the message ID is found, the message ID is output to the interpretation processing unit 60.

After performing a predetermined procedure for the mail server on the network 90, the information extracting unit 50 extracts necessary information of the mail (electronic mail information) based on the input message ID from the mail server. And outputs it to the interpretation processing unit 60.

The interpreting unit 60 sends the information of the electronic mail or the message I according to the search result of the searching unit 20.
D, the interpretation processing unit 60 interprets the e-mail information and converts it into text when the information of the e-mail is input, and then stores the e-mail information in the storage processing unit 7.
0, and if a message ID is input, the message ID is passed to the storage processing unit 70 without any processing.

The storage processor 70 temporarily stores the e-mail information converted into the text format (the information cached in each cache database) in its own storage area, and stores the information in accordance with the contents. Cache database 30 or cache database 4
Store to 0. On the other hand, when the message ID is input, the cache database 30 or the cache database 40 is searched to obtain a list of information indicating the e-mail corresponding to the message ID, the information indicating the e-mail, and the electronic mail. The attribute of the mail is read and stored in its own storage area.

The display section 80 reads information stored in the storage area of the storage processing section 70, and sorts and displays the information.

In this embodiment, the above-mentioned processing means is constituted by a portion indicated by reference numeral 100 in FIG. 1, and the above-mentioned output means is constituted by a display section 80 shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a database stored in the cache database 30.

In the example shown in this figure, it means that there are a total of 20 mails, and this information is represented by "All: 1-20" as indicated by reference numeral 310 in FIG. . Specifically, “Index.1” to “Index
x. 20 "respectively. In addition, what is designated by the “Index. Number” is an identification number (message ID) uniquely determined in the mailbox, and the numbers (100 to 135) adjacent to the identification number are the user numbers. Is a number added for the purpose of specifying the mail. This database is used to list mailboxes,
The email is updated when the email is deleted / deleted, displayed, or the like.

Of the 20 mails, portions indicated by reference numerals 320 to 360 in FIG. 3 are stored in such a manner that an attribute as information indicating the type of mail and information indicating the electronic mail are associated with each other. It is shown that.

A portion indicated by reference numeral 320 indicates a mail which is in a deleteable state (in this example, indicated by "Delete"). Specifically, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ,
This is a mail corresponding to each of the identification numbers 8, 9, and 10.

The portion indicated by reference numeral 330 indicates a mail that has not been read (in this example, indicated by “Unread”), and specifically, a mail corresponding to each identification number of 2, 11 to 20. is there.

The portion indicated by reference numeral 340 is a mail having additional information (in this example, indicated by "Attachment"), for example, a document with an attachment, in addition to a normal mail. Are mails corresponding to the identification numbers 1, 2, 3, and 17, respectively.

The portion indicated by reference numeral 350 is the importance of the mail, for example, the importance of each level of “high”, “medium” and “low” (in this example, “high” = “High”, “medium” = “Normal” ",
“Low” = “Low”) is specified, and specifically, the mails indicating the importance level “High” of the mail are 1, 4, 5, and 7 , 10,
The emails corresponding to the respective identification numbers of Nos. 17 and 17 indicate that the importance of the email is "medium".
The mails corresponding to the identification numbers 3 and 14, and the mails indicating the importance level “low” of the mail are the mails corresponding to the identification numbers 2 and 6.

The portion indicated by reference numeral 360 indicates that the mail is a delivery report (in this example, indicated by "Report"), and specifically, corresponds to the identification numbers 18 and 20. This is the email

First, the search processing by the search processing unit 20 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, when there is a search request for an attribute (for example, "Unread", that is, unread mail) given by the pre-processing unit 10 and given by the user, the search processing unit 20 It is determined whether there is a mail database in 30 (step 401). If the database exists, it is checked whether or not there is data of the designated attribute (for example, data of "Unread") (step 402). If there is data, a list of message IDs associated with the data (in this example, the identification numbers of 2, 11 to 20 = list of message IDs) is returned to the preprocessing unit 10 (step 403). . If "NO" in the step 402, the absolute address (message ID) registered in the map table (not shown) stored in the cache database 30 is returned to the pre-processing unit 10, and the process ends. I do. If “NO” in the step 401, the process is ended.

Next, the information extracting process by the information extracting section 50 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, the information extracting unit 50 logs in to the mail server based on the identification information from the user input through the pre-processing unit 10 indicating the self (step 501), and thereafter, the mail It is determined whether a mailbox corresponding to the identification information indicating the user exists in the server (step 502). If a mailbox exists, the total number of mails stored in the mailbox is checked (step 503), and it is determined whether the total number is "0" (step 504).
If the total number is not "0", necessary information (for example, the absolute number of the mail or the information of the attribute specified by the user) is extracted from all the mails (step 50).
5, 506). If “NO” in the step 502 and “YES” in the step 504, the process ends.

Next, the interpretation processing by the interpretation processing unit 60 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 6, the interpretation processing section 60 determines whether or not there is information (e-mail attribute information) on the mail extracted by the information extracting section 50 (step 601). If the mail exists, the attribute of the mail is interpreted and converted to text (step 60).
2) The text-format attribute information is added to the mail as a header for each attribute (step 603). Step 60
After completing the step 3, the process returns to the step 601 to execute the steps after this step. If there is no mail in step 601, the process ends. If the message ID from the search processing unit 20 input through the preprocessing unit 10 exists, the message I is processed without any processing.
D is passed to the storage processing unit 70.

Subsequently, the storage processing by the storage processing unit 70 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 7, the storage processor 70 determines whether or not there is information (e-mail attribute information) about the interpreted mail from the interpreter 60 in its own storage area. (Step 701). If there is information about the mail, it is determined whether there is an unprocessed attribute that has not been cached in the cache database (step 702). If there is an unprocessed attribute, it is determined whether or not there is attribute information corresponding to the unprocessed attribute in the cache databases 30 and 40 (step 703). If the attribute information exists, the message ID is added to the record of the attribute information (step 704), and then the above-described step 70 is performed.
Return to step 2 and execute the steps after this step. Step 7 above
03, if the attribute information does not exist in the database, the attribute information is stored in the cache database 30.
After the additional registration in each database of the cache database 40 (step 705), the process proceeds to step 704. If “NO” in step 701 and “NO” in step 702, the process ends. The interpretation processing unit 6
When the message ID output from 0 is input, the cache databases 30 and 40 are searched, and a list of information indicating the e-mail corresponding to the corresponding message ID, and information indicating the e-mail and the e-mail have The read attribute is read and stored in its own storage area.

Finally, the display processing by the display unit 80 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 8, the display unit 80 determines whether or not there is a mail database by referring to the contents of the storage area of the storage processing unit 70 (step 801). In this case, storing the attribute information of the e-mail in the storage area means that the database exists in the cache database. If a database exists, it is checked whether or not data on the mail to be displayed is stored in the storage area (step 802). If mail data is registered, all registered attributes are extracted (step 8).
03), the extracted attributes are edited and displayed (step 804).

In this example, a mail list is displayed, and the attribute “Unread” and the mail identification number are displayed in association with each other. That is, in the database shown in FIG. 3, the contents corresponding to “Index.1” to “Index.20” and the contents are displayed at least in a portion indicated by reference numeral 330. In addition, when the user uses symbols 320 to 3
When the attribute indicated by 60 is designated, for example, the contents of the database as shown in FIG. 3 can be displayed. If "NO" in the above steps 801 and 802, the search processing unit 20 returns to the preprocessing unit 10 a message indicating that the information is not registered and the message ID as a search result. Each process of the extraction processing, the interpretation processing by the interpretation processing unit 60, and the storage processing by the storage processing unit 70 is executed (step 805). After step 805 is completed, there is mail data to be displayed in the storage processing unit 70, so that the display unit 80 can perform the processing after step 803.

Then, the user refers to the contents of the database shown in, for example, FIG. 3 displayed on the display unit 80, and refers to the attribute “Unread” indicated by reference numeral 220 in FIG.
, The desired message ID “2” (Index.2) is recognized from among the message IDs corresponding to “1.”, and the number “101” corresponding to the recognized “Index. 50 from the mail server, "In
dex. The mail body corresponding to "2" is read.

Further, when the user has read the mail body corresponding to "Index.2", this is instructed. Therefore, the record of the attribute "Unread" of the database shown in FIG. 3 indicates the identification number of the mail. "2" (that is, Inde
x. 2) is deleted. If you want to delete a mail, you need to specify the number and the number corresponding to the identification number (Index: specific number). Therefore, the record of the attribute “Delete” in the database contains the identification number of the corresponding mail. Is additionally registered.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the attributes of the mail, such as the importance, unread and read, and the information indicating the corresponding e-mail are displayed in association with each other. Whether or not to read the e-mail can be easily determined based on the information.

Further, since the information of the e-mail obtained by accessing the mail server which exists globally is cached in the cache database which exists locally, the e-mail obtained by accessing once is obtained. It is not necessary to access the mail server for the information, and it is only necessary to access the cache database, whereby the display processing of the electronic mail information can be performed at high speed.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, the user designates the identification information based on the state information among the identification information of the displayed e-mail and the state information as the attribute information of the e-mail. By specifying the desired e-mail, the operation of obtaining the desired e-mail body to be obtained can be easily performed. Therefore, it is possible to provide an e-mail acquisition method that can reduce the time for a user to make a decision to acquire a desired e-mail.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of an e-mail management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a network system including an electronic mail management device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a database stored in a cache database according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a search processing operation of a search processing unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an extraction processing operation of an information extraction unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an interpretation processing operation of an interpretation processing unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a storage processing operation of a storage processing unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a display processing operation of a display unit according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Pre-processing part, 20 ... Search processing part, 30, 40 ... Cache database, 50 ... Information extraction part, 60 ... Interpretation processing part, 70 ... Storage processing part, 80 ... Display part, 100 ... Processing means.

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission Date] May 16, 2001 (2001.5.1)
6)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Name of invention

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

Patent application title: Method and apparatus for acquiring e-mail, method and apparatus for displaying information

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims]

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0001

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail obtaining method and apparatus for displaying information for obtaining mail from an electronic mail storage device for storing electronic mail, and an information display method and apparatus.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0004

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail acquisition method and apparatus, and an information display method and apparatus that allow a user to easily make a decision when acquiring a desired e-mail.

[Procedure amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0005

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0005]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail acquiring method for acquiring an electronic mail from an electronic mail storage device for storing the electronic mail. The status information as attribute information of the electronic mail is displayed, and after displaying the displayed status information, the electronic mail body is acquired. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in an electronic mail acquisition device that acquires an electronic mail from an electronic mail storage device that stores the electronic mail, the identification information of the electronic mail and the status information as the attribute information of the electronic mail are displayed. After displaying the displayed status information, the electronic mail body is obtained. According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display method for displaying information for acquiring a mail from an electronic mail storage device for storing the electronic mail, wherein the identification information of the electronic mail and the status as the attribute information of the electronic mail are provided. And displaying information. Further, the invention according to claim 4 is an information display device for displaying information for acquiring an e-mail from an e-mail storage device for storing the e-mail, wherein the identification information of the e-mail and the status as the attribute information of the e-mail And displaying information.

[Procedure amendment 6]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0006

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the identification information of the e-mail and the status information as the attribute information of the e-mail are displayed, and after the displayed status information is displayed, the main body of the e-mail is obtained. . According to the first aspect of the present invention, a user can easily make a decision when acquiring a desired mail. Also in the invention according to claim 2, the identification information of the e-mail and the status information as the attribute information of the e-mail are displayed, and the e-mail body is obtained after the displayed status information is displayed. When the user obtains a desired mail, the user can easily make a decision.

[Procedure amendment 7]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0007

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

In the invention according to claim 3, the identification information of the electronic mail and the status information as the attribute information of the electronic mail are displayed. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible for the user to easily make a decision when acquiring a desired mail. Also in the invention according to claim 4, since the identification information of the electronic mail and the status information as the attribute information of the electronic mail are displayed, the user can easily make a decision when obtaining the desired mail. .

[Procedure amendment 8]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0045

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, in an information display method and apparatus for displaying information for acquiring mail from an electronic mail storage device for storing electronic mail, the identification information of the electronic mail and the information By displaying the status information as the attribute information of the e-mail, the user can easily make a decision when acquiring the desired e-mail.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail acquisition method for acquiring an e-mail from an e-mail storage device that stores an e-mail, wherein the identification information of the e-mail stored in the e-mail storage device and the status of the e-mail as attribute information An electronic mail acquiring method, wherein a desired electronic mail is designated based on the displayed state information, and the designated electronic mail body is acquired from the electronic mail storage device. .