JP2006172015A - Network terminal, server device and mail program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a network terminal capable of deleting a non-target person from a group address by easy operation when performing transmission by use of the group address. <P>SOLUTION: When a mail address and a mail text are inputted to this terminal, each mail address, a symbol mail address and the group address constituting the inputted mail address are developed to each mail address in reference to an address book DB, and are stored in a transmission destination area inside a storage part. When the mail address attached with a symbol (-) showing exclusion is inputted in addition to the normal mail address, each mail address, the symbol mail address and the group address constituting the symbol-attached mail address are developed to each mail address in reference to the address book DB, each developed mail address and each mail address stored in the transmission destination area inside the storage part are compared, and the according mail address are deleted from the transmission destination area. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a network terminal, a server device, and a mail program, and more particularly to a PC, a mail server device, a mail program, and the like having a function of transmitting and receiving electronic mail sent via a network such as the Internet.
Hereinafter, as an e-mail address, xxx @ co. In addition to a direct mail address such as jp, a mail address that is indirectly linked to a mail address can also be applied as a broad mail address.

  Conventionally, e-mail is displayed with software having a mail function of a client terminal (network terminal) via a network such as the Internet or via a mail server device having functions such as SMTP and POP. Input, transmission and reception are performed.

For this reason, the network terminal is provided with an address book for realizing the mail function described above, and stores not only an individual address book but also a group address of a certain attribute unit, and transmission in that unit is possible. It is possible.
Examples of group addresses include “all employees”, “notices over section managers”, “notifications over line managers”, “executives”, etc., due to the complexity of recent employment patterns. Including or not including employees, dispatchers, etc., by sending an analogy based on the name of the group address, even confidential information inside the company will be sent to members who are seconded to the outside, department managers, section managers The only thing that should be notified is that the director and the president are also notified.

As a prior art, a technique is disclosed in which a group is represented in an address list in order to identify whether or not it is registered in a group address (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In addition, a technique is disclosed in which it is possible to specify whether an attached file is attached or not attached to each destination in transmission using a group address (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP 2000-307630 A

JP 2000-276418 A

When the number of constituent members of the group address is small, it is generally performed that the group address is expanded into individual mail addresses and members that do not need to be deleted are transmitted before transmission.
However, when the group address becomes “section manager or higher”, there are many cases where the number of members increases to several hundreds. In this case, it is practically inconvenient and inefficient to expand and delete on a PC. There is a problem that it is.
In addition, from the viewpoint of personal information protection, the above public group addresses are almost always operated in a manner that does not allow deployment on each PC terminal, and it is practically impossible to delete them individually. There is.
Furthermore, when sending using a public group address, in general, the sender often does not know the affiliation and status of everyone, and unless an optimal group address is chosen, There is a problem that documents may be sent or sent to people who are more than necessary.
In addition, as work styles become more complex, there is a problem that the types of group addresses tend to increase, such as “over manager”, “over officer”, and “secondary employees”.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems, and in particular, when transmitting using a group address, a non-target person is deleted from the group address by a simple operation. The object is to provide a terminal device, a server device, or a program that allows specification.
As a result, it is possible to efficiently select an optimal transmission partner without knowing the constituent members of the group address and without changing the format of the address book.
In addition, by making it possible to specify a negative combination, an increase in the number of types of group addresses can be prevented.

A processing unit, a storage unit, an input / output unit, and a communication processing unit are provided. When a mail address and a mail text are input from a user, the mail text is transmitted to a destination to which the mail address is assigned via a network. Network terminal
On the screen, the mail text and the individual mail address, symbol mail address, and group address that compose the mail address indicating the mail text address are entered, and when sending is instructed, the processing unit displays the entered mail address. Expand to individual email addresses, and send the email text to each expanded email address.
The processing unit has a mail address expansion means and a mail address deletion means,
The mail address expansion means expands and stores individual mail addresses, symbol mail addresses, and group addresses constituting the input normal mail address into individual mail addresses with reference to the address book database registered in the storage unit. Stored in the transmission destination area within the department,
When an email address with a symbol indicating exclusion is input in addition to the input normal email address (hereinafter referred to as an excluded email address), the email address deleting means The mail address, the symbol mail address, and the group address are expanded into individual mail addresses by referring to the address book database registered in the storage unit, and stored in the expanded individual mail address and the transmission destination area in the storage unit. Individual email addresses are compared, and the matching email address is deleted from the transmission destination area.
As a result, when the excluded email address is not included in the email address, the email body is sent with the individual email address expanded from the regular email address as the destination, and when the excluded email address is included, the regular email address The mail text is transmitted to the individual mail address as a result of deleting the individual mail addresses obtained by expanding the excluded mail addresses from the individual mail addresses expanded.

A server device connected to a network terminal via a network and having a processing unit, a storage unit, an input / output unit, and a communication processing unit, and the processing unit having the mail address expanding unit and the mail address deleting unit And
A normal e-mail address composed of individual e-mail addresses, symbol e-mail addresses and group addresses, and an excluded e-mail address composed of individual e-mail addresses, symbol e-mail addresses and group addresses are transmitted from the network terminal to the server device, The individual mail address of the destination to which the mail text is transmitted is obtained by the mail address expanding means and mail address deleting means of the processing unit.

According to the present invention, when mail is transmitted using a group address, a non-target person can be deleted from the group address by a simple operation.
Also, this makes it possible to efficiently select the transmission partner optimally without knowing the group address members and without changing the address book format.
Further, when transmitting using a group address, it is possible to improve the efficiency of destination selection work.
Further, when transmitting using a group address, a non-target destination can be removed from the target by a simple operation.
Further, since it is not necessary to configure the address book as a special address book, preparation work such as special conversion is unnecessary.
In addition, the number of types of group addresses can be reduced.

An embodiment of a network terminal according to the present invention will be described below by taking a personal computer (PC) as an example as a representative of the network terminal.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a network system including a PC according to the present invention.
In the present network system, a plurality of PCs 2 connected via a local area network (LAN) are connected to each mail server device 1 as shown in the figure, and each mail server device 1 is connected via the Internet 3. taking it.
In FIG. 1, a mail server device 1 has a mail server function and the like.
In FIG. 1, although displayed as one mail server device 1, the functions may be shared by a plurality of mail server devices.
Further, the PC 2 has a function of transmitting an electronic mail via the Internet 3 and the like.

FIG. 2 shows a hardware block diagram of the PC 2.
Reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU that controls the entire PC 2.
Reference numeral 202 denotes a memory that temporarily stores programs, tables, data, and the like during execution.
A LAN control unit 203 is a communication processing unit that performs connection control with a LAN such as an Ethernet.
Reference numeral 204 denotes an external storage device HDD for storing and storing a program, a database such as an address book, and tables.
Reference numeral 205 denotes an input unit that controls input devices such as a KB (keyboard) 208 and a mouse 209.
Reference numeral 206 denotes an output unit for outputting and displaying on the display 210.

FIG. 3 shows a software block diagram of the PC 2.
Reference numeral 300 denotes the entire software.
Reference numeral 302 denotes an operating system (OS) that controls the entire software, and 301 denotes a mail program that is one of application programs.
Furthermore, there is a program group that controls input / output. The program group that controls input / output includes a communication control unit 310, an input control unit 320, a display control unit 330, and a file control unit 340.
The communication control unit 310 is a program for controlling the LAN control unit 203, the input control unit 320 is a program for controlling the input unit 205, the display control unit 330 is a program for controlling the output unit 206, and the file control unit 340 is for the external storage device HDD 204. It is a program to control.
Reference numeral 305 denotes a mail transmission process.
Reference numeral 304 denotes a transmission mail address editing process, which is a process for a designated destination address. Here, the “destination” is a collective term for so-called TO (which means “to” in English), CC (Carbon Copy), and BCC (Blind Carbon Copy). If a symbol e-mail address is specified as the destination, conversion to an official e-mail address, or if a group address is specified as the destination, expansion processing to individual e-mail addresses is performed.
Reference numeral 303 denotes an operation control unit that controls operations by an operator, and edits / creates a mail text on the GUI screen, selects a mail address to be transmitted from an address book, and adds / edits.
Reference numeral 306 denotes a mail reception process.

FIG. 4 shows a typical screen display example of the mail program 301.
In this example, a typical screen example for creating a message for transmission in the mail program 301 is shown.
Reference numeral 401 denotes a window name indicating the name of the screen.
Reference numeral 402 denotes a toolbar on which menus of various commands are pasted.
403, 404, and 405 are columns for TO, CC, and BCC, respectively. The destination mail address is set, but both individual mail addresses and symbol addresses including symbolic mail addresses displayed in symbols can be specified. It is.
Further, as a delimiter between a plurality of designated mail addresses, “;” is generally used such as “section manager or higher; officer or higher”, “ccc; ddd; eeee”.
Here, the specified individual mail address, symbol mail address, and group address are converted and expanded into individual mail addresses at the time of transmission in the mail address expansion process in the transmission mail address editing process of the mail program 301 (however, The mail body is transmitted to each mail address of the result as it is (the designated individual mail addresses are not changed).
Further, in the present example, all the mail address expansion processing is expanded to individual mail addresses on the PC 2 for the sake of convenience. However, public group addresses common in the company may be expanded on the mail server device. Good.
The mail address expansion process may be performed by a mail server device.
Reference numeral 406 denotes a subject field and a subject column of the mail.
Reference numeral 407 denotes a mail text field in which a mail text is written.

FIG. 5 shows a screen display example of the mail program 301 according to the present invention.
Here, an e-mail address of “Section Manager and above;-Director and above” is specified. This is because the member of “Group manager and above”, which is the group address, includes the officer and president. By designating a group address to which “-” is added, it means that members of the officer or higher are consciously excluded from the target.
Here, “−” is used as a symbol indicating exclusion in this embodiment, but the symbol indicating exclusion is not limited to “−”. In the following, “-” is used as a symbol indicating exclusion.
A “mail address” with “-” added (in the case of FIG. 5, an officer or higher), that is, a minus operation is designated by a minus designated mail address.
Similarly, by designating “−secondary employee”, it is possible to specify that the seconded employee is excluded. Of course, a minus calculation of the personal mail address is also possible.
The individual mail addresses, symbol mail addresses, and group addresses that are designated minus here are converted into individual mail addresses and expanded in the mail address deletion process in the mail transmission address editing process of the mail program 301 at the time of transmission (however, The specified individual e-mail address is kept as it is), and the individual e-mail addresses converted and expanded are compared with the individual e-mail addresses obtained by the e-mail address expansion process, and the corresponding individual e-mail addresses are compared with the e-mail. It is deleted from the individual mail addresses obtained by the address expansion process, and the mail text is transmitted to the remaining individual mail addresses.
Further, the mail address deletion process may be performed by a mail server device.
As a secondary effect of this function, the number of types of group addresses can be reduced.
For example, it is originally necessary to create a group address such as “over the section manager excluding officers or higher”, “over the section manager excluding seconded employees”, etc., but the basic group address, For example, as long as “Executive officers”, “Supervisors”, and “Temporary employees” are prepared, a combination of these basic group addresses is sufficient.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration of the address book database.
5 indicates a group address.
Reference numeral 6 denotes an all employee address list.
In the group address 5, the names of the constituent members for each group are designated, and the all employee address list 6 can be indexed from the names.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an address book of the all employee address list 6.
Reference numeral 601 denotes a “name” field.
Reference numeral 602 denotes a “mail address” field.
Reference numeral 603 denotes an “attribute” field. In this example, affiliation and position are shown.

FIG. 8 shows the group address.
Reference numeral 501 denotes a “group name” field.
Reference numeral 502 denotes a “name” field.
It is possible to link to the all employee address list 6 by the name 502 column.
The TO 403, CC 404, and BCC 405 can be specified by a group name 501, a name 502 (corresponding to a symbol address), a mail address 602, and the like.
All are converted into the mail address 602 by the transmission mail address editing process 304.

FIG. 9 shows the flow of processing for sending a mail, sending a destination mail address in a sending mail address editing process 304, a sending destination mail address expanding process and a sending destination mail address deleting process, and sending a mail 305.
S901 is a mail creation process. Under the control of the operation control unit 903, in accordance with the operator's input operation, the setting of the text in the mail text field 407 on the GUI screen, the TO, CC, and BCC fields (403, 404 and 405) are designated, and mail is created as shown in FIGS. Then, the transmission button on the tool bar 302 is pressed by the operator.
S902 is an e-mail address expansion process. From the normal symbol e-mail address and group address normally specified in each column of TO, CC, and BCC (403, 404, 405) (that is, not specified as negative), Perform expansion processing to email addresses.
S903 is a mail address deletion process, in which a minus designated symbol mail address and group address are expanded, and an address that matches the expanded minus designated address exists in the normally designated address developed in S902. In this case, the corresponding address is deleted from the normally designated address developed in S902.
Of course, even if a minus designation is made for each mail address and symbol address, the deletion process can be performed in the same manner.
In S904, it is determined whether S902 and S903 have been executed for all the specified mail addresses. If executed, the process proceeds to S905, and if not executed, the process returns to S902, and the mail address that has not been executed. Steps S902 and S903 are executed for the mail addresses specified in TO403, CC404, and BCC405.
S905 is a transmission process in which mail is transmitted.

FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart of the mail address expansion process (S902) for a mail address that is normally designated.
In this example, it is limited to TO 403, but it goes without saying that it can be similarly applied to CC 404 and BCC 405.
In S1001, the character string specified in TO403 is searched, and after the e-mail addresses delimited by “;” are sequentially processed, it is found that all processing has been completed by finding the character string of the space. If it is determined and it is determined that all the processes have been completed (S1001-Yes), the process ends (end).
In S1002, the mail addresses are sequentially read out from the character string in TO403 with “;” as a delimiter.
In S1003, it is checked whether or not “−” is specified at the head of the read mail address. If “−” is not specified, the process proceeds to S1004. If “−” is specified, the process returns to S1001.
In S1004, a mail address not designated with “-” is converted into a plurality of mail addresses 602 especially for group addresses, and a symbol mail address such as a name is also converted into individual mail addresses 602. The expansion and conversion results are set in the transmission destination area 1100, and the process returns to S1001.
Also, when the designated mail address is an individual mail address, the individual mail address is set in the transmission destination area 1100 as it is.
By the processing of S1004, in the transmission destination area 1100, for example, in the case of the example of FIG.
The result is shown in the transmission destination area 1100 of FIG.
FIG. 11 shows a transmission destination area 1100 and shows an example of a table in which “section manager and higher” in the example of FIG. 4 is expanded.
Reference numeral 1101 denotes a name field.
Reference numeral 1102 denotes a mail address field converted into individual formal addresses.

FIG. 12 shows a detailed flowchart of the mail address deletion process (S903) for a minus designated mail address that is not a normal address designation.
In this example as well, as in the case of FIG. 10, it is limited to TO 403, but it goes without saying that it can be similarly applied to CC 404 and BCC 405.
In S1201, the character string specified in TO403 is searched, and after processing e-mail addresses delimited by “;” in sequence, all the processing is completed by finding a space character string. If it is determined and it is determined that all the processing is completed (S1201-Yes), the processing ends (end).
In S1202, the mail addresses are sequentially read out from the character string in TO403 with “;” as a delimiter.
In step S1203, it is checked whether “−” is specified at the head of the read mail address. If "-" is not specified, the process proceeds to S1204. If "-" is specified, the process returns to S1201.
In S1204, in particular, a group address is expanded and converted into a plurality of individual mail addresses 602, and a symbol mail address such as a name is also converted into individual mail addresses 602. The expanded and converted data is stored in the work area of the memory.
Also, when the designated mail address is an individual mail address, the individual mail address is stored as it is in the work area of the memory.
In step S1205, it is checked whether each mail address stored in the work area of the memory in step S1204 exists in the transmission destination area 1100. If it is determined by inspection that it is present, the process proceeds to S1206. If it is determined that it does not exist, the process returns to S1205.
In S1206, the e-mail address determined to exist in S1205 is deleted from the e-mail address stored in the transmission destination area 1100.
In S1207, it is determined whether or not the check has been completed for all the mail addresses developed in S1204. If completed, the process returns to S1201, and if not completed, the process returns to S1205.
In this way, the mail address deletion process is performed on the entire TO 403.

As described above, as a result after the processing of S902 and S903, the mail address to be transmitted is shown in the transmission destination area 1100 of FIG.
Here, as a result of “director or higher;-officer” designated in FIG. 5, only the group of “department manager” and “section manager” remains as the target email address.
With the remaining target mail address as the destination, mail is sent in S905.
In this example, minus (exclusion) processing is shown in each of the designated areas of TO, CC, and BCC. However, TO, CC, and BCC are collectively referred to as (TO + CC + BCC) + (− TO, −CC). , -BCC), minus (exclusion) processing may be applied.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the network system containing PC concerning this invention. It is a hardware block diagram of PC2 shown by FIG. It is a software block diagram of PC2 shown by FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a message preparation screen of general mail software. It is a figure which shows the example of a transmission screen of the mail software which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of an address book database structure. It is a figure which shows the structural example of all the employee address lists. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a group address. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a series of processes from mail preparation to mail transmission. It is a figure which shows the flowchart of a mail address expansion | deployment process. It is a figure which shows the example of a set of a transmission destination area. It is a figure which shows the flowchart which shows a mail address deletion process. It is a figure which shows the example of a set of the transmission destination area after a transmission destination deletion process.

Explanation of symbols

1 Mail server device 2 PC
3 Internet 201 CPU
202 Memory 203 LAN control unit 204 HDD
205 Input unit 206 Output unit 208 KB (keyboard)
209 Mouse 210 Display 300 Software 301 Mail program 302 OS
303 Operation Control Unit 304 Transmission Mail Address Editing Processing 305 Transmission Processing 306 Reception Processing 310 Communication Control Unit 320 Input Control Unit 330 Display Control Unit 340 File Control Unit 401 Window Name 402 Toolbar 403 TO
404 CC
405 BCC
406 Subject 407 Body 5 Group address 501 Name 502 Email address 6 List of all employee addresses 601 Name 602 Email address 603 Attribute 1101 Name 1102 Email address

Claims (4)

A processing unit, a storage unit, an input / output unit, and a communication processing unit are provided. When a mail address and a mail text are input from a user, the mail text is transmitted to a destination to which the mail address is assigned via a network. Network terminal
The processing unit expands individual mail addresses, symbol mail addresses, and group addresses constituting the input normal mail address into individual mail addresses with reference to an address book database registered in the storage unit. E-mail address expansion means for storing in a transmission destination area in the storage unit;
When an email address with a symbol indicating exclusion in addition to the input normal email address (hereinafter referred to as an exclusion email address) is entered, individual email addresses and symbol emails constituting the exclusion email address The address and the group address are expanded to individual mail addresses with reference to the address book database registered in the storage unit, and the expanded individual mail addresses and the individual address stored in the transmission destination area in the storage unit A network terminal comprising a mail address deleting means for comparing mail addresses and deleting a matching mail address from the transmission destination area. In a server device that includes a processing unit, a storage unit, an input / output unit, and a communication processing unit, and is connected to a network terminal and other server devices via a network,
The processing unit refers to an address book database registered in the storage unit for individual mail addresses, symbol mail addresses, and group addresses that constitute a normal mail address transmitted from a network terminal via a network. E-mail address expanding means for expanding the e-mail address and storing it in the transmission destination area in the storage unit;
When an e-mail address with a symbol indicating exclusion in addition to the transmitted normal e-mail address (hereinafter referred to as an excluded e-mail address) is transmitted, individual e-mail addresses and symbol e-mails constituting the excluded e-mail address The address and the group address are expanded to individual mail addresses with reference to the address book database registered in the storage unit, and the expanded individual mail addresses and the individual address stored in the transmission destination area in the storage unit A server device comprising mail address deleting means for comparing mail addresses and deleting a matching mail address from the transmission destination area. At least a processing unit, a storage unit, an input / output unit, and a communication processing unit are provided. When a mail address and a mail text are input from a user, the mail text is sent to a destination to which the mail address is assigned via a network. A mail program for determining an individual mail address of a destination to which the inputted mail text is to be sent based on the inputted mail address executed in a network terminal for transmission,
The storage device stores an address book database;
Each mail address, symbol mail address, and group address constituting a normal mail address input by a user is expanded into individual mail addresses by referring to an address book database registered in the storage section. Storing in the destination area;
When an email address with a symbol indicating exclusion in addition to a normal email address input by the user (hereinafter referred to as an excluded email address) is input by the user, individual emails constituting the excluded email address Expanding addresses, symbol e-mail addresses and group addresses into individual e-mail addresses with reference to an address book database registered in the storage unit;
Comparing the expanded individual mail addresses with individual mail addresses stored in a transmission destination area in the storage unit;
A mail program for executing the step of deleting individual mail addresses that match as a result of the comparison from the transmission destination area. A server device that includes a processing unit, a storage unit, an input / output unit, and a communication processing unit, and is connected to a network terminal and other server devices via a network. A mail program for determining an individual mail address of a destination to which the transmitted mail text is to be sent based on the transmitted mail address,
The storage device stores an address book database;
The individual mail addresses, symbol mail addresses and group addresses constituting the transmitted normal mail address are expanded into individual mail addresses with reference to the address book database registered in the storage unit, and the transmission in the storage unit is performed. Storing in the destination area;
In addition to the transmitted normal mail address, when an email address with a symbol indicating exclusion (hereinafter referred to as an excluded email address) is transmitted, individual email addresses and symbol email addresses constituting the excluded email address Expanding the group addresses into individual mail addresses with reference to the address book database registered in the storage unit;
Comparing the expanded individual mail addresses with individual mail addresses stored in a transmission destination area in the storage unit;
A mail program for executing the step of deleting individual mail addresses that match as a result of the comparison from the transmission destination area.

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