JP3000983B2 - Electronic mail system and its information storage medium - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an e-mail system using the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, and the like. More particularly, an e-mail received by executing an e-mail control program (software) is added to a homepage URL (URL). Uniform Resource Locator)
Is listed, select one of these URLs,
The present invention relates to an e-mail system that displays a list of e-mails in which the URL is described and a main body on a screen, and an information storage medium thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an e-mail system using the Internet, an intranet, an extranet or the like, a URL of a home page may be described in a received e-mail, and a list of these URLs is created and stored. are doing. In this case, every time an e-mail is received, the content of the e-mail is displayed, and the URL portion described in this display is copied and pasted (assigned) to the U-mail.
A list of RLs is created. This is done by operating the keyboard and mouse. The URL described in the e-mail received in this manner is organized and stored by manual operation.

Each time an e-mail is received, an e-mail is displayed on a screen, and a URL described on the display screen is displayed.
Is performed manually by starting the browser and registering the bookmark, that is, by operating the keyboard and mouse. The URL is registered in a bookmark of the browser and stored as data unrelated to the e-mail. In this case, the U registered in the browser bookmark
The content of the e-mail in which the URL is described cannot be referred to from the RL.

[0004]

As described above, in the above-described conventional e-mail system, when organizing and storing the URL described in the received e-mail, the user operates the keyboard and mouse of the e-mail. The manual operation is troublesome, and the time required for the storage operation is increased. Further, since the URL is registered in a bookmark of the browser and stored as data unrelated to the e-mail, the contents of the e-mail in which the URL is described cannot be referenced from the URL registered in the bookmark of the browser.

Therefore, the UR described in the e-mail
Since the operability regarding registration and browsing of L is poor, and the URL registration work described in the e-mail is manual, the operability and reliability of URL registration are poor, and
There is a disadvantage that RL information cannot be easily reused.

[0006] The present invention is to solve such a problem in the prior art, and the U.S. Pat.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an e-mail system that improves operability, workability, and reliability related to registration and browsing of RL and facilitates reuse of URL information, and to provide an information storage medium therefor.

[0007] As a detailed object, a home page URL described in a received e-mail can be automatically registered, a URL frame is displayed as a hierarchical structure, and a URL of the registered home page is displayed. An e-mail system that displays the contents of all e-mails containing the selected URL on the screen, activates the browser from the registered URL, and displays the home page on the screen, and information on the e-mail system The purpose is to provide a storage medium.

[0008]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail system for transmitting and receiving an electronic mail through a network. Search for the home page address described in, and if the home page address is listed, automatically register this home page address and enter the home page address in this home page. And a homepage address processing means for displaying the homepage address on the screen display area of the homepage.

The electronic mail system according to a second aspect is configured such that an address of the home page is a URL.

The electronic mail system according to a third aspect is configured such that a screen display area of the home page address is a URL frame.

In the electronic mail system according to the present invention, when displaying the URL frame of the home page address on a screen, a directory is created for each directory hierarchy of the home page address and displayed hierarchically. The screen is displayed non-hierarchically.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the URL classification of the registered home page address is performed by creating a folder in advance and performing an automatic or manual operation instruction.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when one of the URLs of the home page address displayed in the URL frame of the screen display area of the home page address is selected, a home page is displayed on the browser. There is a configuration.

In the electronic mail system according to the present invention, when one of the URLs of the home page address displayed in the URL frame of the screen display area of the home page address is selected, the selected home page is displayed. The configuration is such that all of the e-mails in which the URL of the address is described are generated in a list and displayed on a screen.

In the electronic mail system according to the present invention, when one of the URLs of the home page address displayed in the URL frame of the screen display area of the home page address is selected, the selected home page is selected. UR of address
All of the e-mails in which L is described are generated in a list and displayed on the screen, and when at least one of the e-mails is selected, the content of the selected e-mail is displayed on the screen.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic mail system, as the home page address processing means, a communication control unit for controlling transmission and reception of an electronic mail, a directory creation unit for performing a directory creation process, and an electronic mail for storing the electronic mail. A storage unit, a sort processing unit for executing sorting of at least URL hierarchy in the e-mail storage unit, a display processing unit for executing processing for displaying a mail index screen and a web index screen, and a display processing unit A display for displaying the processed image data on a screen, an operation unit for automatically registering the URL of the home page described in the received e-mail, and an operation unit described in the received e-mail. The homepage URL is automatically registered and displayed as a hierarchical structure in the URL frame. , Of the home page, which is registered U
A control unit for selecting one of the RLs, displaying all the e-mails in which the selected URL is described on the screen, and activating a browser from the registered URL to display a home page on the screen. This is a configuration including:

An electronic mail system according to claim 10 is:
A communication-only memory storing a communication control program for transmitting and receiving e-mails through the communication line, and a directory-only memory for performing at least a processing program and a working storage process when the directory creator performs directory creation processing The configuration further includes a memory and a sort-only memory for performing at least a processing program and a working storage process when the sort processing unit performs processing.

An electronic mail system according to claim 11 is
The network is an Internet, an intranet, and an extranet.

In the information storage medium according to the present invention, the URL of the home page described in the received e-mail is automatically registered, and the information storage medium is created for each URL directory hierarchy.
URL display as a hierarchical structure of created directory
Area, select one of the registered URLs of the homepage, display the contents of all the e-mails with the selected URL on the screen, start the browser with the registered URL, and display the homepage. A control program for executing each control to be displayed on the screen is stored.

An electronic mail system having such a configuration is as follows .
On the Internet, intranets and extranets, when an e-mail is received, a home page address (URL) described in the body of the e-mail is searched. If the URL is described in the search, the URL is searched.
L is automatically registered. Further, the URL is displayed in a screen display area (URL frame) of the URL. As a result, the operability of registering and browsing the URL described in the e-mail is improved, the workability and reliability are improved, and the reuse of the URL information is facilitated.

In the electronic mail system according to the present invention, a directory is created for each directory hierarchy of a home page address (URL) and displayed hierarchically or displayed non-hierarchically on the screen and registered. URL folder classification is performed automatically or manually. As a result, the reuse of the URL information is facilitated, and the operability regarding registration and browsing of the URL is improved.

The electronic mail system according to any one of claims 6 to 8 displays a home page on a browser when one of the URLs displayed in the URL frame is selected, and further displays all the electronic mails in which the selected URL is described. Is displayed as a list on the screen. When one of these is selected, the content of the selected e-mail is displayed on the screen. As a result,
Reuse of URL information is facilitated, and the degree of freedom is improved.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information storage medium for improving operability, workability, and reliability of registering and browsing a URL described in an electronic mail, and for easily reusing the URL information. To the floppy disk (F
D) or packaged software using an exchangeable EEPROM. As a result, when a general-purpose small computer system (personal computer) is used as the e-mail system, the above control can be easily and universally applied.

[0024]

Next, an embodiment of an electronic mail system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG.
1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an electronic mail system and an information storage medium thereof according to the present invention. This example uses a general-purpose small computer (personal computer) or the like, and has the following functional block configuration.

The system shown in FIG. 1 has a communication control unit 2 for controlling transmission and reception of electronic mail 1 through a communication line such as ISDN, and a communication control unit 2 for transmitting and receiving electronic mail 1 through a communication line such as ISDN. A dedicated communication memory 3 in which a communication control program is stored. Furthermore, it has a directory creation unit 4 for performing directory creation processing, and a directory-specific memory 5 for performing a processing program and working storage processing when the directory creation unit 4 performs directory creation processing.

This system also includes an e-mail storage unit 6 for continuously storing the e-mails 1 and a sort of a file or e-mail list display frame on a hard disk or the like of the e-mail storage unit 6, particularly, a URL.
It has a sort processing unit 7 for performing sorting of sorting of (home page address) layers, and a sort-specific memory 8 for performing a processing program and a working storage process when the sort processing unit 7 performs processing. are doing.

Further, the system is capable of various processing states,
In particular, a display processing unit 9 for executing processing for displaying a mail index screen and a WEB index screen, and a CRT for displaying image data processed by the display processing unit 9 on a screen
(E.g., CRT) or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), sending and receiving e-mail, and in particular, the URL of the home page described in the received e-mail
And an operation unit 11 having a keyboard and a mouse for performing an operation for automatically registering the.

Further, this system improves the operability, workability, and reliability of registering and browsing a URL described in an electronic mail, and performs control for easily reusing the URL information. 12.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. In FIG. 1, a communication control unit 2 controls transmission and reception of an e-mail 1 through a communication line such as ISDN in cooperation with a control of a control unit 12 and a communication dedicated memory 3. In response to the received e-mail, the directory creation unit 4
And the directory creation process is performed in conjunction with the directory dedicated memory 5. Further, the electronic mail received by the electronic mail storage unit 6 is stored under the control of the control unit 12. In addition, the sort processing unit 7 performs, for example, sorting of a file or an e-mail list display frame on the hard disk or the like of the e-mail storage unit 6 in cooperation with the control of the control unit 12 and the sort dedicated memory 8. Perform a sort of hierarchical organization.

Further, the display processing section 9 executes various processing states under the control of the control section 12, in particular, processing for displaying a mail index screen and a WEB index screen on a screen, and displays the image data processed by the display processing section 9. The screen is displayed on the display 10. In this case, operations such as transmission / reception of an e-mail and, in particular, automatic registration of the URL of the home page described in the received e-mail are performed by the keyboard and the mouse of the operation unit 11.

Further, the control unit 12 performs control for improving operability, workability and reliability related to registration and browsing of a URL described in an e-mail, and for easily reusing the URL information. For this purpose, the control unit 12 executes the following control.

(A) Control is performed to automatically register the URL of the home page described in the received e-mail. (B) Control to display a URL frame as a hierarchical structure. (C) One of the URLs of the registered home page is selected, and control is performed to display the contents of all e-mails in which the selected URL is described on the screen. (D) The browser is started from the registered URL and the home page is displayed on the screen.

Hereinafter, the operability, workability and reliability relating to the registration and browsing of the URL described in the above-mentioned e-mail are improved by using the mail index screen and the WEB index screen displayed on the display 10, and Control for easily reusing URL information (the contents described in (a) to (d) above) will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of an operation corresponding to this processing, and FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a mail index screen. Also, FIG.
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an index screen, and FIG.
It is a figure showing the processing state of RL directory hierarchy creation.

The mail index screen shown in FIG. 3 includes a menu frame A1, a folder frame A2, an electronic mail list frame A3, and an electronic mail content frame A4.
Consists of The menu frame A1 includes a menu (SE
ARCH, CUT, COPY, PASTE, DELET
E, mail transmission, mail reply, mail transfer, mail reception, binary (G3 facsimile transmission procedure) mail restoration, binary mail transmission) selectable portion is displayed on the display 10 on the screen, and any one of the operations in FIG. The selection is made through the operation of the unit 11 (cursor movement and click operation). In the folder frame A2, a menu frame A1, a notice, a question, a software download, a conference, and the like are displayed on the screen of the display 10, and any one of them is selected through an operation of the operation unit 11.

The electronic mail list frame A3 is
The contents (5 1997..12 XX manual questions) for the questions of the folder frame A2 for each date are shown. Further, and the email content frame A4 is:
The contents of the e-mail specified in the e-mail list frame A3 (1997. ○ .12 XX for the XX manual question. I have a question about XX manual. Please give me the address of the mirror site with the same content as the following address. Http://www.a.co.jp
/ Aaa / 2html) is displayed on the screen.

The WEB index screen shown in FIG. 4 has a menu frame B1, a URL frame B2, an e-mail list frame B3, and an e-mail content frame B4. The menu frame B1 has the same menu (SEARCH, CUT, C
OPY, PASTE, DELETE) and other menus (close folder, insert folder, change folder name, jump to URL, insert URL, change URL, check URL) are displayed on the screen.

In the URL frame B2, a directory is created for each directory hierarchy of the URL, and the URL is created.
Are arranged in a hierarchy, that is, the URL frame B2
Of the folder “Folder-a”, together with the directory “www” under the hierarchy, and “1.h
html "and a directory" aaa ", and further includes" 2.html "thereunder. The same applies to the folder “nec”. However, “www.nec.c
o. jp / aaa / 2. "html" has no URL, and the screen is displayed with the hierarchical structure put together.

The e-mail list frame B3 is
The list contents of the e-mail, that is, the e-mail registered first in the e-mail folder "notification", the e-mail registered fifth in the e-mail folder "notification", and the e-mail folder "question" The fifth registered e-mail and the e-mail folder "Question"
The twelfth registered e-mail is displayed on the screen. Further, in the e-mail content frame B4, the content of the fifth registered e-mail of the e-mail folder "notification" is displayed on the screen.

2 to 5, first, an electronic mail is received through the mail index screen shown in FIG. 3 (step S1 in FIG. 2). Next, it is searched whether or not the URL is described in the received e-mail (step S2). When URL is not described in this search (S
2: No), the URL registration processing is completed, and if the URL is described (S2: Yes), the URL frame B2
It is determined whether or not the same URL exists (step S3).

If the URL exists in this judgment (S3:
If Yes, the URL registration process is completed, and if there is no URL (S3: No), a directory is created for each URL directory in the URL frame B2 in FIG. 4 (step S4). That is, the URLs are arranged in a hierarchy and registered in the URL frame B2 (steps S5 and S6). Thereafter, the URL registered in the URL frame B2 is selected (step S7), and the e-mail including the selected URL is stored in the e-mail list frame B.
3 is displayed on the screen (step S8).

Next, the main part of the operation of this embodiment will be described in detail. In the mail index screen shown in FIG. 3, an e-mail is received by operating the mail reception in the menu frame A1. At the same time as storing the e-mail in the folder, a search is performed to determine whether or not the URL is described in the received e-mail. Hereinafter, here, in the URL frame B2 of FIG.
er-a ”is“ www.a.co.jp/1.htm ”.
The description will be made assuming that “1” is registered.

From the received e-mail (the fifth registered e-mail in the e-mail folder “Question”), “http://www.a.co.jp/aaa/
2. html ”, the URL frame B2
In the same URL “www.a.co.jp/aaa/
2. html ”is not stored, the folder“ F
“aaa” 2 directory “aaa” is created under the directory “www.a.co.jp/” of “older-a”. "2.html" under the "aaa" directory
Is displayed on the URL frame B2 on the screen.

When "2.html" displayed on the screen of the URL frame B2 is selected, all e-mails are searched and "www.a.co.jp/aaa/2.h" is searched.
tml "(e-mail registered first in e-mail folder" notification ", e-mail registered fifth in e-mail folder" notification ", e-mail folder" question " (The fifth registered e-mail and the twelfth registered e-mail of the e-mail folder “Question”) are displayed on the e-mail list frame B3 on the screen. Furthermore, when the fifth registered e-mail in the e-mail folder "question" is selected, the contents of the fifth e-mail registered in the e-mail folder "question" are displayed in the e-mail content frame B4. You.

"2.html" registered in the URL frame B2, that is, "www.a.co.j"
p / aaa / 2. When “html” is selected, the browser is started and “http://www.a.co.jp/
aaa / 2. html ”is opened and displayed on the screen.

On the WEB index screen shown in FIG. 4, when the URLs of the URL frame B2 are hierarchically arranged and registered, “www.ne” in the folder “nec” is stored.
c. co. Since only one URL is registered for “jp”, the screen is displayed without a particular hierarchical structure.

Incidentally, a general-purpose small computer system (personal computer) is often used as the electronic mail system having the configuration shown in FIG. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, a package software in which a control program executed by the control unit 12 is stored in a floppy disk (FD) or an exchangeable EEPROM is performed.
As a result, the control unit 12 described above improves the operability, workability, and reliability related to the registration and browsing of the URL described in the e-mail, and the control for easily reusing the URL information is facilitated. Can be applied to

That is, the URL of the home page described in the received e-mail is automatically registered.
A control is performed to display the URL on the RL frame as a hierarchical structure, select one of the registered URLs of the home page, and display all the e-mails with the selected URL on the screen. In addition, control is performed to start a browser from the registered URL and display a home page on a screen. By making these control programs into package software, general-purpose applications in general-purpose small computer systems (personal computers) are facilitated.

[0049]

As is clear from the above description, according to the electronic mail system according to the first to third, ninth to eleventh aspects, the contents of the received electronic mail in the Internet, intranet, extranet, etc. URL
Is described, the URL is automatically registered, and the URL is displayed in the URL frame.

As a result, the URL described in the e-mail
The operability related to registration and browsing of URLs is improved, the operability and reliability are improved, and the reuse of URL information can be facilitated.

According to the electronic mail system of the present invention, a directory is created for each directory hierarchy of the URL and displayed hierarchically or displayed on a non-hierarchical screen, and the folder classification of the registered URL is performed. Is performed automatically or manually. As a result, the reuse of URL information is facilitated, and the degree of operability regarding registration and browsing of URLs is improved.

According to the electronic mail system of the present invention, when one of the URLs displayed in the URL frame is selected, a home page is displayed on the browser,
All of the e-mails in which the selected URL is described are listed and displayed on the screen. When one of these is selected, the content of the selected e-mail is displayed on the screen. As a result, the reuse of URL information is facilitated, and the degree of freedom is improved.

According to the information storage medium of the twelfth aspect,
Package software using a floppy disk or replaceable EEPROM to improve the operability, workability, and reliability of registering and browsing the URL described in the e-mail, and to easily reuse the URL information. Is becoming

As a result, when a general-purpose small computer system (personal computer) is used as the electronic mail system, the above control can be easily and versatilely applied.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of an electronic mail system and an information storage medium thereof according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of an operation corresponding to various processing in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a mail index screen according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a web index screen according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a processing state of URL directory hierarchy creation in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 E-mail 2 Communication control part 3 Communication-only memory 4 Directory creation part 5 Directory-only memory 6 E-mail storage part 7 Sort processing part 8 Sort-only memory 9 Display processing part 10 Display 11 Operation part 12 Control part A1, B1 Menu frame A2 Folder frame B2 URL frame A3, B3 E-mail list frame A4, B5 E-mail content frame

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Claims (12)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electronic mail system for transmitting and receiving an electronic mail through a network. When an electronic mail is received, a home page address described in the body of the electronic mail is searched, and the home page address is described. The home page address is automatically registered, and the home page address is displayed in a screen display area of the home page address. Email system. 2. The address of the home page is a URL (U
2. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail system is a niform resource locator. 3. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the screen display area of the home page address is a URL frame. 4. When displaying the URL frame of the home page address on a screen, a directory is created for each directory hierarchy of the home page address and displayed hierarchically or non-hierarchically displayed on the screen. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The registered home page address U
RL folder classification, create a folder in advance, and
2. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein said electronic mail system is automatically or manually operated. 6. A homepage is displayed on a browser when one of URLs of a home page address displayed in a URL frame of a screen display area of the home page address is selected. The described e-mail system. 7. When one of the URLs of the home page address displayed in the URL frame of the screen display area of the home page address is selected, the URL of the selected home page address is described. 2. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein all of the electronic mails are generated in a list and displayed on a screen. 8. When one of the URLs of the home page address displayed in the URL frame of the screen display area of the home page address is selected, an electronic document in which the URL of the selected home page address is described. 2. The e-mail system according to claim 1, wherein all of the e-mails are generated in a list and displayed on the screen, and when at least one of the e-mails is selected, the contents of the selected e-mail are displayed on the screen. 9. A communication control unit for controlling transmission and reception of e-mail, a directory creation unit for performing directory creation processing, an e-mail storage unit for storing e-mail, the e-mail storage unit as the home page address processing means, A sort processing unit for executing sorting of at least URL hierarchy in the unit, a display processing unit for executing processing for displaying a mail index screen and a WEB index screen, and image data processed by the display processing unit. Display to display on screen, UR of home page described in received e-mail
And an operation unit for automatically registering the L. The home page UR described in the received e-mail.
L is automatically registered and displayed as a hierarchical structure in a URL frame, and further, the URL of the registered home page is displayed.
And a control unit for performing a control for displaying all the e-mails containing the selected URL on the screen, starting a browser from the registered URL, and displaying the home page on the screen. The e-mail system according to claim 1, comprising: 10. A communication-dedicated memory in which the communication control unit stores a communication control program for transmitting and receiving e-mail via a communication line, and at least a processing program and a working storage process when a directory creation unit performs a directory creation process. 10. The e-mail system according to claim 9, further comprising: a directory dedicated memory for performing a process; and a sort dedicated memory for performing at least a processing program and a working storage process when the sort processing unit performs a process. Wherein said network is an electronic mail system according to any one of claims 1-9, characterized in that the Internet, an intranet and an extranet. 12. A homepage URL described in a received e-mail is automatically registered, and a directory created for each URL directory hierarchy.
The tree is displayed in a hierarchical structure on the screen display area of the URL, one of the registered home page URLs is selected, and the contents of all e-mails with the selected URL are displayed on the screen and registered. An information storage medium storing a control program for executing each control for starting a browser by a URL and displaying a home page on a screen.