JP2005032208A - E-mail transmission device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reflect a transmission condition in response to a change of a database when an e-mail is automatically transmitted by setting the transmission condition in the case where the database of members is changed. <P>SOLUTION: A member data storage means is used for storing attribute information related to each member and an e-mail address of the member by relating them to each other; a member attribute reception means receives the attribute information related to the member from a user; and a member data update means updates the member data storage means on the basis of the received attribute information. A transmission condition storage means is used for storing a transmission condition of a condition for transmitting an e-mail including the attribute information; and a transmission e-mail storage means is used for storing e-mail data to be transmitted; a condition coincidence object extraction means examines whether or not there is a member having attribute information coincident with the transmission condition at every predetermined time interval to extract the e-mail address of the coincident member. An e-mail transmission means transmits the stored e-mail date to the extracted e-mail address. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus that automatically transmits an e-mail to a plurality of subjects, and more particularly to an apparatus that transmits an e-mail in response to a change in an attribute relating to a subject.

In organizations with many members, it is widely practiced to communicate with each member by e-mail. At this time, in order to change the transmission time and transmission contents according to the member attributes, a method is set in which conditions are set in advance by a program, and an e-mail is transmitted at the target person and time according to the conditions.
For example, if you want to send an e-mail containing a promotion of a store in Tokyo to a woman who lives in Tokyo on your birthday, you can set the conditions like this and set the membership on the computer that sends the e-mail through the program. The transmission schedule is such that the attribute information of Tokyo and women is extracted from the database and the birthday of each transmission target person is extracted, and a predetermined e-mail is transmitted to each transmission target person on the extracted birthday. Generated. Then, according to this schedule, the computer transmits an e-mail to the target person at the transmission time.

By the way, when a condition is specified in this way and a transmission schedule is generated by searching a member database, a transmission target person and a transmission time are determined when the transmission schedule is generated. In the meantime, if you move from Tokyo to Nagoya and the contents of the member database change and the conditions are no longer met, the email will still be sent.
In addition, in order to generate a transmission schedule, it is necessary for the condition setter to input whether the attribute information related to time such as a birthday is known in advance. For this reason, the transmission time cannot be set based on an uncertain event that occurs in the future, for example, an e-mail is transmitted three hours after the store visit time.
In view of such a problem, the present invention reflects the transmission condition in response to the change in the database when the transmission condition is set and the e-mail is automatically transmitted when the database regarding the member attribute changes. The purpose is to be able to.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has the following configuration.
The invention according to claim 1 is a member data storage means for storing attribute information related to a member in association with an e-mail address of the member, a member attribute receiving means for receiving attribute information about the member from a user, Member data update means for updating the member data storage means based on the accepted attribute information, transmission condition storage means for storing a transmission condition that is a condition for sending an e-mail containing the attribute information, and an electronic to be transmitted A condition matching target that examines whether or not there is a member having attribute information that matches the transmission condition every predetermined time interval, and extracts the e-mail address of the matching member The e-mail address extracted by the extraction means and the condition matching target extraction means is stored in the transmission mail storage means. An electronic mail transmission apparatus having an electronic-mail transmitting means for transmitting from the time that the extracted email within a predetermined time. In the present application, “member” means a member of a predetermined group, and it does not matter whether the name “member” is used.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the attribute information includes time attribute information that is attribute information related to time, and the transmission condition is a condition related to a time at which an e-mail is transmitted, including the time attribute information. A transmission time condition is included. The time attribute information includes information indicating a specific date and time such as a date of birth and a wedding anniversary, and the date and time when something happened to the member.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the time attribute information is information relating to the occurrence of an event related to the member that does not occur at the time when the transmission time condition is stored in the transmission condition storage means. E-mail transmission device. The event here is a predetermined event related to the member. The information related to the time of occurrence of the event includes, in addition to the time of occurrence of the event, the time when the event has occurred a predetermined number of times and the end time of the time period when the event has not occurred within the predetermined time period.
4. The electronic mail transmitting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information related to the occurrence of the event indicates a time when the occurrence of the event is accepted or a time when the occurrence of the event is stored. It is.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic mail transmitting apparatus according to the third aspect, the information related to the occurrence of the event is time data input by the user regarding the event.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the electronic mail management device further comprises attribute information new registration judging means for judging whether or not the attribute information is newly stored in the member data storage at every predetermined time interval. 4. The electronic mail transmitting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information regarding the occurrence of the event indicates a time at which the attribute information new registration determination unit determines that the occurrence of the event is newly stored as attribute information. is there. Note that the predetermined time interval here may coincide with or differ from the predetermined time interval in the condition matching target extracting unit.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the electronic mail transmitting device is a client computer connected to the Internet, and the electronic mail transmitting means transmits the electronic mail data to a predetermined server on the Internet. It is intended for transmission.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the electronic mail transmitting device is a server computer connected to the Internet, and the electronic mail transmitting means transmits the electronic mail data to an arbitrary server on the Internet. Is to send.
The invention according to claim 9 is a program for causing a computer to realize the function of the electronic mail transmitting apparatus.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when a transmission condition is set in advance and an e-mail is automatically transmitted, a member that matches the transmission condition is extracted every predetermined time interval, and an e-mail is sent to the extracted member. Thus, even if the member database changes, an e-mail can be transmitted to the subject in response to the database change.
In the invention according to claim 2, since the condition regarding the attribute information related to time is included in the transmission condition, an e-mail can be transmitted at a desired time without creating a transmission schedule in advance. Even if it changes, it can respond.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, by setting a condition for information related to the occurrence of an event that has not occurred at the time when the condition is set, a time related to a future time that cannot be realized by the method of creating a transmission schedule is set. An email can be sent.
In the invention according to claim 4, since the information related to the time of occurrence of the event indicates the time when the occurrence of the event is accepted or the stored time, the time of occurrence of the event can be determined simply by inputting the occurrence of the event. The information about can be generated.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the user inputs information related to the occurrence of an event, the time can be set flexibly.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the information related to the time of occurrence of the event is the time when the occurrence of the event is found by a periodic search, the time can be collected at regular intervals.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned e-mail transmission device can be realized by a client computer. According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned e-mail transmission device can be realized by a server computer.
According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the electronic mail transmitting apparatus can be realized by a general computer.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a network to which the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A according to the present embodiment belongs. In FIG. 1, an electronic mail transmitting apparatus A is connected to an electronic mail server X directly connected to the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A and a plurality of target person electronic mail servers Y to be transmitted via the Internet. Assume that the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A is installed in a store having members.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the hardware configuration of the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A. The e-mail transmission apparatus A is configured by a general computer, specifically, a CPU 11 that performs arithmetic processing, a RAM 12 that is a work area of the CPU, a basic program is a ROM 13 that records data, and an operation timing of the CPU. Clock 14, hard disk 15 for storing data and programs, keyboard 18 for inputting data, input device such as mouse 19, CCD camera 20, monitor 16 for displaying information, for connection to the Internet Network interface 17 such as a router. The electronic mail management apparatus A is realized by incorporating a program for causing such a general computer to perform the following operations.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram schematically showing functions of the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A according to the present embodiment. The e-mail transmission apparatus includes a member data storage unit 101, a member attribute reception unit 102, a member data update unit 103, an attribute information new registration determination unit 104, an e-mail data reception unit 105, a transmission mail storage unit 106, a transmission condition reception unit 107, A transmission condition storage unit 108, a condition matching target extraction unit 109, and an e-mail transmission unit 110 are included.

The member data storage unit 101 stores attribute information including an e-mail address related to a member in association with member identification information for identifying the member. FIG. 4A schematically shows the record contents of the member data storage unit 101. As shown in the figure, the member data storage unit 101 uses a member identifier, which is member identification information, as a primary key, in addition to a password, e-mail address, name, gender, age, address, occupation, date of birth, visit to the store Flags, store visit dates, etc. are stored as member attribute information.
The member attribute receiving unit 102 receives input of member attribute information from the user of the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A. Here, in the case of a new member, a new member identifier is given together with the reception of attribute information, and in the case of an existing member, the attribute information is received in association with the member identifier. Note that the member attribute information may also be received as attribute information transmitted via a server on the Internet. Further, here, when the CCD camera reads and decodes the two-dimensional code presented by the member, the member attribute receiving unit 102 receives that the member has visited the store, and the store visit flag of the member data storage unit 101 is set to “1”. Is set.
The member data update unit 103 updates the member data storage unit 101 based on the accepted attribute information. Specifically, already stored attribute information is rewritten, and attribute information that is not yet stored is added. The reception of attribute information includes a case where the attribute information is lost. In this case, the attribute information is deleted.
The attribute information new registration determination unit 104 determines whether or not new visits to the member data storage unit 101 are newly stored at predetermined time intervals, here, every minute. If it is determined that a new visit is stored, the member data storage unit 101 determines the visit date and time as attribute information of the member determined to have been newly stored. Is remembered.

The e-mail data receiving unit 105 receives e-mail data such as text data and attached files of e-mail to be transmitted from the user of the e-mail transmission apparatus A.
The outgoing mail storage unit 106 stores the electronic mail data received by the electronic mail data reception unit 105. FIG. 4B schematically shows the record contents of the outgoing mail storage unit 106. As shown in the figure, the outgoing mail storage unit 106 stores electronic mail data with the mail identifier as a primary key.
The transmission condition accepting unit 107 accepts input of a transmission condition that is a condition for transmitting an e-mail from the user of the e-mail transmitting apparatus A regarding the e-mail data stored in the transmitted e-mail storage unit 106. As the transmission conditions, there are subject specification conditions which are conditions for designating a transmission target for specifying attribute information such as gender and address as a transmission target, and “send one day before the date of birth”, “three hours after visiting the store” It is divided into transmission time conditions which are conditions for designating the transmission time, such as “send later” or “send after 3 months since the last visit”. Note that the designation of the transmission time may also designate a target person who meets the conditions at the time of transmission. The date of birth related to the transmission time, the date and time of visiting the store, etc. become time attribute information related to the time. In addition, the fact that the customer has visited the store is an event related to the member that does not occur at the time of inputting and storing the transmission condition, and the date and time when the customer visits the store is information relating to the occurrence of this event.
The transmission condition storage unit 108 stores the transmission condition received by the transmission condition reception unit 107 in association with the identification information of the e-mail data. FIG. 4C schematically stores the record contents of the transmission condition storage unit 106. The transmission condition storage unit 106 uses a condition identifier as a primary key to specify who the person is to be transmitted to, a transmission time condition that specifies when to transmit, and a transmission that specifies which e-mail is to be transmitted. The mail identifier is stored.
The condition matching target extraction unit 109 determines whether or not there is a member having attribute information that matches the transmission condition at every predetermined time interval, and extracts the e-mail address of the matching member. Here, the predetermined time interval is set every minute for the conditions related to the time of visiting the store, and every other hour for the other conditions.
From the time when the e-mail having the extracted identification information stored in the transmission mail storage unit 106 is extracted from the e-mail address extracted by the condition matching target extraction unit 109 from the e-mail transmission unit 110 Send within a predetermined time. Here, it transmits immediately after extraction.

Next, the operation of the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A having the above configuration will be described. First, an operation of storing e-mail data and transmission conditions as preparation for transmitting an e-mail will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing this operation. First, the user inputs e-mail data to be transmitted. This is received by the e-mail receiving unit 105, and the transmitted mail storage unit 106 stores the mail identifier with the mail identifier (s101). Next, the user inputs subject specification conditions that are attribute information indicating the subject. In addition, it is not necessary to specify when targeting all members. The transmission condition storage unit 108 attaches a condition identifier to the target person designation condition, and stores it in association with the mail identifier of the electronic mail data stored in the transmission mail storage unit 106 (s102). In addition, when the target person specifying condition is not specified, information for specifying all is stored. Further, the user inputs a transmission time condition that is attribute information indicating the transmission time. The transmission time condition is received by the transmission condition receiving unit 107, and the transmission condition storage unit 108 stores the condition in association with the above-described condition identifier (s103). This completes the preparation for sending an e-mail.
Next, the operation of the attribute information new registration determination unit 104 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing this operation. The attribute information new registration determination unit 104 monitors the member data storage unit 101 every minute (s201), and determines whether there is a member whose store visit flag is “1” (s202). If there is no member whose store visit flag is “1”, monitoring is continued without doing anything. If there is a member whose store visit flag is “1”, the determination time is stored in the member data storage unit 101 as the latest store visit date and time of the member (s203), and then the store visit flag is returned to “0”. Continue monitoring again.

  Finally, an operation in which the electronic mail transmitting apparatus A transmits an electronic mail will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing this operation. In this case, two e-mail data are registered, and each transmission condition is “all the target person specified conditions, the transmission time condition is 3 hours after the latest visit” and “the target specified conditions are Hyogo Prefecture” It is assumed that the transmission time condition is “birthday”. First, the condition matching target extraction unit 109 examines the member data storage unit 101 and periodically monitors whether there is a member that satisfies the transmission condition. Here, the monitoring is set every minute for the conditions related to the store visit, and every other hour (s301, s302). If there is no member who satisfies the condition when 1 minute has passed and 1 hour has passed, monitoring is continued without doing anything. If there is a “member who has passed 3 hours from the store” after 1 minute has passed, the condition matching target extraction unit 109 extracts the e-mail address of the member from the member data storage unit 101 (s304). The e-mail transmission unit 110 extracts e-mail data associated with the condition identifier attached to the condition from the transmission e-mail storage unit 106 (s305), and sends e-mail to the e-mail address extracted by the condition matching target extraction unit 109. (S306). If there is a “birthday member living in Hyogo” after one hour, the condition matching target extraction unit 109 extracts the member's e-mail address from the member data storage unit 101 (s304). . The e-mail transmission unit 110 extracts e-mail data associated with the condition identifier attached to this condition from the transmission e-mail storage unit 106 (s305), and sends e-mail to the e-mail address extracted by the condition matching target extraction unit 109. (S306). By performing such operations, e-mails can be sent without omission to members who moved to Hyogo Prefecture just before their birthday, for example, and based on the time when the member visits the store when conditions are not known E-mail can be sent at the specified time.

In this embodiment, the store visit date and time as time data related to the store visit which is the event is the time when the attribute information new registration determination unit 104 periodically monitors and determines that the store visit has occurred. As a method for setting the visit date and time, the time when the visit is accepted or the stored time may be stored as the visit date and the user may input the visit date and time.
In addition, although the e-mail transmission apparatus is realized by a client computer on the Internet here, it can also be realized by an e-mail server. At this time, the e-mail is transmitted by transmitting the e-mail data to another Internet server, and the member attributes, the transmission conditions, and the e-mail data are transmitted from the client computer through the communication line. Accept data.

It is a figure which shows typically the network to which the electronic mail transmitter which concerns on embodiment belongs. It is a block diagram which shows typically the hardware constitutions of the electronic mail transmission apparatus which concerns on embodiment. It is a functional block diagram which shows typically the function of the electronic mail transmitter which concerns on embodiment. (A) is a figure which shows typically the record content of a member data storage part, (b) is a figure which shows the record content of a transmission mail memory | storage part typically, (c) is a record of a transmission condition storage part It is a figure which shows the content typically. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement which memorize | stores the email data and transmission conditions of the email transmission apparatus which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the attribute information new registration judgment part of the electronic mail transmitter which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement which transmits the email of the email transmission apparatus which concerns on embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Email transmission apparatus is member data storage part 102 Member attribute reception part 103 Member data update part 104 Time attribute information new registration judgment part 105 Email data reception part 106 Transmission mail storage part 107 Transmission condition reception part 108 Transmission condition storage part 109 Condition matching target extraction unit 110 E-mail transmission unit

Claims (9)

Member data storage means for storing attribute information related to a member and a member's e-mail address in association with each other;
Member attribute receiving means for receiving attribute information about the member;
Member data update means for updating the member data storage means based on the accepted attribute information;
Transmission condition storage means for storing a transmission condition which is a condition for transmitting an e-mail including the attribute information;
Transmission mail storage means for storing e-mail data to be transmitted;
A condition matching target extraction unit that examines whether or not there is a member having attribute information that matches the transmission condition every predetermined time interval, and extracts an e-mail address of the matching member;
An e-mail transmission apparatus comprising: an e-mail transmission unit configured to transmit an e-mail stored by the transmission mail storage unit within a predetermined time from the extracted time to an e-mail address extracted by the condition matching target extraction unit. The attribute information includes time attribute information that is attribute information related to time,
The e-mail transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission condition includes a transmission time condition that is a condition related to a time at which an e-mail is transmitted, including the time attribute information. The e-mail transmission apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the time attribute information is information relating to an occurrence of an event relating to the member that has not occurred at the time when the transmission time condition is stored in the transmission condition storage unit.   4. The electronic mail transmitting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information related to the occurrence of the event indicates a time when the occurrence of the event is accepted or a time when the occurrence of the event is stored.   The electronic mail transmitting device according to claim 3, wherein the information related to the occurrence of the event is time data input by the user regarding the event. In the electronic mail management device,
Attribute information new registration determination means for determining whether or not the attribute information is newly stored in the member data storage at predetermined time intervals,
The e-mail transmission apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information related to the occurrence of the event indicates a time when the attribute information new registration determination unit determines that the occurrence of the event is newly stored as attribute information. The e-mail transmission device is a client computer connected to the Internet, and the e-mail transmission means transmits the e-mail data to a predetermined server on the Internet as e-mail transmission. The e-mail transmission device according to any one of 6. The e-mail transmission device is a server computer connected to the Internet, and the e-mail transmission means transmits the e-mail data to an arbitrary server on the Internet as e-mail transmission. The e-mail transmission device according to any one of 6.   The program which makes a computer implement | achieve the function of the electronic mail transmission apparatus of any one of Claim 1 to 8.

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