JP3257590B2 - Mail communication method and mail communication system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail communication method for receiving an e-mail from an e-mail terminal, converting the received e-mail into image information and voice information, and transmitting the converted data to, for example, a facsimile terminal or a telephone. In particular, the present invention relates to a mail communication method and a mail communication system having a function of transmitting a transmission record, a notice of non-delivery, and the like as an electronic mail to an electronic mail terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, e-mail has begun to be used as communication means in addition to telephone and facsimile communication which have been conventionally used. Electronic mail is rapidly spreading along with the worldwide spread of the Internet. At present, communication between electronic mail terminals such as personal computers is the main form of electronic mail communication, but it is also used for facsimile terminals and general telephones that are now widely used as recording communication systems. There is also a demand for providing a communication service that can transmit data from an electronic mail terminal.

An e-mail transmitted from an e-mail terminal is basically composed of text data expressed as a sequence of character codes. Even if such an e-mail is directly transferred to a facsimile terminal, The facsimile terminal cannot normally receive and output the e-mail. Even when the image data is attached to the e-mail as an attached file, since the format of the image data is generally different from the format of the image data used in the facsimile terminal, the attached file is left as it is. Normal output cannot be expected even if it is transferred to a facsimile terminal. Therefore, when transferring an e-mail to a facsimile terminal, a conversion device that converts the data of the e-mail into image data suitable for the facsimile terminal is arranged.
The converted image data arrives at the facsimile machine via the conversion device. Similarly, when an electronic mail is transferred to a general telephone, a conversion device for converting character data of the electronic mail into voice information (speech reading voice data) is provided.

There are various communication services for transferring data from an electronic mail terminal to a facsimile terminal or a general telephone. Focusing on the number of communication destinations, there is a basic general communication service when the number of communication destinations is one, and a broadcast communication service having a plurality of destinations. In addition, various services such as a time-designated delivery service, a time-designated delivery cancellation service, a delivery result notification service, a priority delivery designation service, and the like are provided according to the date and time and procedure of data delivery.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 11, a mail server 21, a facsimile server 22 and an integrated server 23 are connected to a local area network (LAN) as a mail communication system that provides various services and enables distributed processing. Network 24 or a configuration interconnected by a WAN (Wide Area Network) is conceivable.
In the mail server 21 via the Internet 11,
E-mail terminal 1 consisting of a personal computer, etc.
2 are connected. The FAX server 22 is connected to the public telephone network 1
3, a facsimile terminal 1 such as a G3 machine or a G4 machine
4 are connected. In this mail communication system, the mail server 21 receives the e-mail from the e-mail terminal 12, cuts out a part including a service identifier indicating a service type and its parameter from the received e-mail, and Is converted into image information and stored in the image storage directory 35. The general server 23 supervises the entire system, analyzes information including the service identifier and its parameters transferred from the mail server 23, and executes specified service processing (for example, broadcast communication or time-specified delivery). Execute. Then, the FAX server 22 retrieves the image information stored in the image storage directory 35 from the mail server 21 in accordance with an instruction from the central server 23, and retrieves the image information via the public telephone network 13 to the designated facsimile terminal. 14 to be sent.

In such a mail communication system, in addition to an e-mail (service request mail) to be delivered by facsimile, a reception completion notification e-mail for notifying the sender that the system has received the e-mail; F
A non-delivery notice e-mail that informs the sender when the AX delivery is unsuccessful will flow between the user who is the sender and the mail communication system. In addition, an e-mail instructing re-transmission in the event of failure to deliver, or an e-mail instructing cancellation of the time-specified delivery when instructing time-specified delivery may be sent from the sender to the e-mail communication system. is there. When a user requests transmission of e-mail data to a facsimile terminal,
A service (general communication service, broadcast communication service, time-specified delivery service) that is first requested to the mail communication system is called a primary service, and a retransmission service that occurs incidentally after the request for the primary service, The time-specified delivery cancellation service is called a secondary service.

FIG. 12 shows a flow of data between a user and a mail communication system when making a request for a primary service and a request for a secondary service based on the primary service in the general mail communication system as described above. It is a sequence diagram shown.

First, the user sends a service request mail 351 (for the primary service) to the mail communication system side. Here, the user's email address is "user
@ aaa.co.jp "and the e-mail address for receiving the primary service on the system side is" dialorder@fnet.or.jp "
Assume that Data to be sent to the destination facsimile terminal is described in the mail body.

The mail communication system which has received the service request mail transmits an e-mail of a notification message to the user in order to notify the reception completion or non-delivery. At this time, the mail address of the sender from the mail communication system is not the mail address for receiving the primary service, but the mail address "mls @
fnet.or.jp "is used. The reason for not using the primary service acceptance mail address is that if the e-mail in the notification text is in error during delivery, the error notification will respond to the error instead of the primary service acceptance mail address. Possible department (in this example, "mls@fnet.or.
jp ”).

[0010] When the user who has received the e-mail notification message requests a secondary service, the user sends a secondary service request mail to the mail communication system. In this case, since the secondary service request mail can be used in a state in which the mail body of the electronic mail of the notification text remains as it is, the user uses the mailer (application software for handling email) to send the electronic mail of the notification text. The e-mail shall be returned as it is, but only the destination will be the e-mail address for receiving the secondary service "2nddialorder@fnet.or.j
Manually change to "p" and send a secondary service request email.

The mail communication system which has received the secondary service request mail executes a secondary service process in accordance with the secondary service request mail.

Here, a general data structure of an electronic mail will be described with reference to FIG. Electronic mail is generally transferred on the Internet by a protocol called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) specified in RFC821 (Request for Comments). E-mail data 360 handled by SMTP is divided into an envelope (<envelope>) portion and a data (<data>) portion. The envelope part is a part including data of management information used at the time of transmission / reception by SMTP, and a server of a node relaying the e-mail at the time of mail transfer refers to the envelope part to obtain necessary information. Attach, and forward the e-mail to the server of the next node. Since the envelope part is a part necessary only for the delivery of the e-mail by SMTP, the information of the envelope part is normally hidden from the user. on the other hand,
The data part is a part including the mail text, and is a part handled by the user by the mailer.

The electronic mail data 360 includes a mail address of the source of the electronic mail (“mls @
fnet.or.jp ") and the destination e-mail address (" user@aaa.co.jp "in the example shown), but these e-mail addresses are registered twice in the envelope part and the data part. ing. That is, in the envelope part,
The “MAIL FROM:” field stores the sender's email address, and the “RCPT TO:” field stores the destination email address. In the data part, "From:"
The sender's email address is stored in the field, and "T
The e-mail address of the recipient is stored in the "o:" field.
Here, the contents of the “MAIL FROM:” and “From:” fields are the same, and the “RCPT TO:” and “T
The contents of the "o:" field are the same. When creating a reply mail using the reply function of the mailer, the mailer
Generally, the contents of the “From:” field of the data portion are recognized as the reply destination.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a part related to transmission and reception of an electronic mail between the user on the electronic mail terminal side and the mail communication system in the above-mentioned mail communication system. The mail server 21 sends an e-mail from the user 20 to the mail receiving unit 61, a command creation unit 62 for creating a command based on the received e-mail, and sends the created command to the central server 23 or another server. Command transmission unit 63 and general server 2
And a command receiving unit 64 that receives a command from another server, a mail creating unit 65 that creates an e-mail for the user 20 based on the received command, and a mail transmission that sends the created mail to the user 20. A part 66. The general server 23 includes a command receiving unit 71 that receives a command from the mail server 21 or another server, a command analyzing unit 72 that analyzes the received command, and a call for each received call (service request mail). A call information table 73 that stores a reception number and a service type of the service, a service control unit 74 that executes and controls service processing based on the received command while referring to the call information table 73, and an execution by the service control unit 74. Command creation unit 75 for creating a command according to the result or the like
And a command transmission unit 76 for transmitting the created command to the mail server 21 or another server. Here, the command sent from the central server 23 to the mail server 21 includes a notification message delivery request, and the notification message delivery request includes information such as a dialing procedure for receiving a secondary service. Absent. Therefore, the mail server 21 that actually sends an e-mail (notification mail) to the user 20 based on the notification message delivery request has “MA” as the source address of the notification mail.
In both the "IL FROM:" and "From:" fields, the address of the mail server (for example, "mls@fnet.o
r.jp ”), and the notification mail is delivered to the user 20.

[0015]

In the mail communication system described above, the electronic mail of the notification sent from the mail communication system to the originating user uses the general address of the center of the mail communication system as the source address. The address, typically the address of the mail server itself, is set as described above. For this reason, in the case where the mail of the notification message is used by using the reply function of the mailer to be used for the secondary service request mail, the user manually sets the mail address of the reply destination to the address for receiving the secondary service request. Need to change. Modifying the address of the transmission destination (reply destination) individually when requesting the secondary service in this way is not only contrary to the general handling habits of the current e-mail, but also takes time to modify. ,
There are problems such as errors easily occurring when inputting by hand.

An object of the present invention is to provide a mail communication method and a mail communication system by which a user can make a secondary service request more easily and reliably.

[0017]

A mail communication method according to the present invention receives a service request mail transmitted from an electronic mail terminal, executes a service process specified in the service request mail, and specifies a service request mail in the service request mail. In the mail communication method of transmitting data to the receiving terminal of the designated destination and transmitting a notification accompanying the service processing to the e-mail terminal as a notification text mail, the source information in the notification text mail includes a service among a plurality of secondary services. Address information indicating the secondary service request procedure of the secondary service corresponding to the service processing specified in the request mail is set, and if a reply processing is performed on the notification mail that has arrived at the electronic mail terminal, a reply is made. The received notification e-mail is accepted as a secondary service request e-mail, and the secondary service And executes the processing.

The mail communication system of the present invention receives a service request mail transmitted from an electronic mail terminal,
Mail communication that executes the service processing specified in the service request mail, transmits data to the receiving terminal specified in the service request mail, and sends a notification accompanying the service processing to the e-mail terminal as a notification text mail A system, comprising: a mail server to which an e-mail terminal is connected via a network and having an e-mail transmission / reception function; and a general server for executing a service process specified in a service request mail. , A secondary service procedure table storing the identification code of the secondary service corresponding to the service processing for each type of service processing, and by referring to the secondary service procedure table, the source information in the notification mail Is an address representing a secondary service request corresponding to the service process specified by the service request mail. Less information is set, and returning process is performed with respect to the notice sentence mail that has reached to the electronic mail terminal when received by mail server, a notice sentence mail sent back to the secondary service request mail, the central server 2
The secondary service process is executed according to the next service request mail.

According to the present invention, by setting the address information indicating the secondary service request in the source information of the notification mail transmitted to the transmitting user, the transmitting user can use the mailer at the e-mail terminal. A secondary service request can be easily made simply by performing a reply operation of the notification text mail without requiring complicated change of address information.

In the present invention, the service request mail and the notification mail are, for example, e-mails delivered in the Internet by a protocol such as SMTP. Such an e-mail is generally used as a first part (envelope part) used for transfer control by SMTP or the like in a network as an e-mail, and as an e-mail which is not used for transfer control in the network but is used as an e-mail. Second part (data part) that contains the contents of the mail body etc.
It is composed of In the case of the present invention, in order to separate the destination of the error notification mail accompanying the mail delivery in the network from the destination of the secondary service request mail, the source information of the first part includes the mail for the error notification mail. Preferably, an address is set, and the address information indicating the secondary service request as described above is set in the source information of the second part.

Further, in the present invention, when a plurality of secondary services are assumed, for example, an attached file containing address information for each secondary service is attached to the notification mail, and the secondary service request mail is attached. Based on the attached file remaining in the notification text mail returned from the user side, or. The secondary service may be executed based on the detected attached file by detecting the deleted attached file.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The overall configuration of the mail communication system of the present embodiment is the same as that of the mail communication system shown in FIG. 11, in which an e-mail terminal 12 is connected via the Internet 11 and the e-mail data is transmitted to facsimile image information. Mail server 21 which converts the data into a telephone and stores it in public telephone network 1
A facsimile terminal 14 is connected via the FAX 3 and has a facsimile server 22 for transferring image information to a designated destination, and a general server 23 for executing and controlling service processing and controlling the entire system. Also in this mail communication system, an e-mail is exchanged between the user and the mail communication system in order to notify the user of a request for a primary service or a secondary service from the user, a notification message, or the like. FIG. 1 shows the internal configuration of a mail server and a central server, focusing on a mechanism for exchanging electronic mail between a user and a mail communication system.

The internal configuration of the mail server 21 and the central server 23 in this embodiment is almost the same as that shown in FIG. 11, except that a secondary service procedure table 77 is provided inside the central server 23. Different. That is, the mail server 21 includes a mail receiving unit 61, a command creating unit 62, a command transmitting unit 63, a command receiving unit 64,
An e-mail creation unit 65 and an e-mail transmission unit 66 are provided. In the integrated server 23, a command reception unit 71, a command analysis unit 72, a call information table 73, a service control unit 74, a command creation unit 75, and command transmission units 76 and 2 A next service procedure table 77 is provided . FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the call information table 73. The call information table 73 regards the occurrence of the primary service as a "call" and, for each call, calls within the network including the mail communication system. It stores a call management number for management, a call reception number that is a reception number notified to the user, and a primary service type requested by the call. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the secondary service procedure table 77. The secondary service procedure table 77 includes, for each primary service type,
It holds the service identification code (service identifier) of the secondary service defined corresponding to the primary service.

In this mail communication system, the service control section 74 of the central server 23 refers to the secondary service procedure table 77 in addition to the call information table 73 to execute and control service processing based on the received command. . In particular, when the requested service processing is a primary service, a secondary service identification code corresponding to the type of the primary service is searched from the secondary service procedure table 77, and the searched secondary service identification code is used as a command. It is passed to the creation unit 75. The command creation unit 75
, A notification message delivery request command for requesting delivery of a notification message mail addressed to the user 20 is created. At this time, the notification message delivery request command is created so as to include the secondary service identification code. Then, the mail creating unit 6 of the mail server 21
5, when the notification message delivery request command including the secondary service identification code is received, the secondary service identification code and the reception for the secondary service are set in the “From:” field of the data portion of the e-mail data. Create a notification e-mail so that the address is included. Specifically, of the e-mail addresses stored in the “From:” field, the user name part is a secondary service dialing procedure including the secondary service identification code, and the domain name part is the address to this e-mail communication system. To be. At this time, in the “MAIL FROM:” field of the envelope part, as in the mail communication system shown in FIGS. 11 to 14, a mail address for receiving an error mail when an error occurs during delivery by SMTP ( For example, the mail address of the mail server 21 itself is stored.

Hereinafter, the flow of data between the user and the mail communication system when requesting the primary service and requesting the secondary service based on the primary service in the mail communication system of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. explain.

First, the user sends a service request mail (for the primary service) to the mail communication system side. Here, the user's email address is "user@aaa.c
o.jp ". Data to be sent to the destination facsimile terminal is described in the mail body. In the figure, the destination address of the mail is "dialorder@fnet.or.j
In the case of the present embodiment, as described later, the user name part (the part on the left side of “@”, here, the “dialorder” part) of the destination mail address is actually It is composed of a telephone number of a destination facsimile terminal (or a database name holding a list of destination facsimile numbers), a service identifier for specifying the type of the primary service to be used, and / or parameters for the primary service to be used. I have. In some cases, the type of service can be determined from the parameter, and in such a case, the service identifier can be omitted. In this service request email, the contents of the “MAIL FROM:” and “RCPT TO:” fields in the envelope part are “T
o: "field and the contents of" From: ".

The mail communication system that has received the service request mail executes a service process according to the service request content, and transmits an electronic mail of a notice to the user. In the email of this notification, the contents of the "RCPT TO:" field in the envelope part and the "To:"
Although the contents of the fields match with the user's mail address (“user@aaa.co.jp”), the information indicating the source of the mail differs between the envelope part and the data part. That is, in the “MAIL FROM:” field of the envelope used in SMTP, the address for receiving the error mail (here, “mls@fnet.or.jp”)
Is set, and as described above, in the “To:” field of the data portion, the address (in this example, “2nddialorder
@ fnet.or.jp ”). Actually, as in the case of the service request mail of the primary service request, the user name part specifies the reception number of the corresponding primary service and the type of the secondary service to be used in order to specify the secondary service. And a service identifier to be specified.

When the user who has received the notification e-mail requests the secondary service, the user sends a secondary service request mail to the mail communication system. In the case of this embodiment, since the dial procedure of the secondary service request is described as it is in the “From:” field of the data portion of the e-mail of the notification message, simply selecting the reply function of the mailer, Without having to edit the destination address,
An appropriate secondary service request mail will be sent from the user to the mail communication system. The mail communication system receives the secondary service request mail and starts the secondary service processing.

Hereinafter, a specific example will be described.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show a processing procedure when a time-specified delivery service is specified as a primary service and then a time-specified delivery cancellation service is requested as a secondary service. FIG. 5 is a processing sequence diagram showing an outline of the processing, and FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for exchanging e-mail between the sending user and the mail communication system.

First, the user sends a mail for time-specified delivery to the mail server 21 as a service request mail (for the primary service) (“service request” in FIG. 5). The contents of the e-mail at this time are shown in "E-mail transmission (with time designation)" in FIG. Here, the user name portion (the portion to the left of “@”) of the destination of the mail (“To:” field) is “# 591408 * # 233 * 01 * 01 ##”.
Also, the content to be output to the destination facsimile terminal is described as the mail text. As described above, in the present embodiment, the service type and the destination of the service to be requested can be specified by describing the service identifier and the parameter indicating the service type and the facsimile destination in the user name portion. . In the example shown here,
“# 59” is a service identifier for the time-specified delivery service, followed by “1408” is a parameter indicating the delivery time of the time-specified delivery service (here, after 8:00 am on the 14th), and “# 233” is This is a service identifier for the broadcast service, and “* 01” or “* 02” indicates the destination.

Such a service request mail is sent to the user 2
In the mail server 21, the service request mail is received by the mail receiving unit 61, the command creating unit 62 creates a primary service sending request command, and the sending request command is transmitted to the command transmitting unit 63. Is sent to the supervising server 23. In the central server 23, the command analysis unit 72 analyzes the transmission request mail received by the command reception unit 71, and notifies the service control unit 74 that the transmission request is a transmission request for time-specified delivery. Then, the service control unit 74 assigns a call management number and a call reception number, and registers the call information such as the call management number, the call reception number, and the service type (in this case, time designation) in the call information table 73. Thereafter, the central server 23 transmits a transmission request response command to the mail server 21 through the command creation unit 75 and the command transmission unit 76.

The mail server 21 which has received the transmission request response command from the central server 23 converts the mail body of the service request mail from the user 20 from the electronic format of the electronic mail to the data format of the image information in the network. After the conversion process is completed, the image signal transfer preparation completion command is transmitted to the central server 23 via the command creation unit 62 and the command transmission unit 63 after the completion of the conversion. In this embodiment, the data format of the image information in the network is, for example, TIFF
(tag image file format) format. Central server 23
Indicates that the call acceptance has been completed when the image signal transfer preparation completion command is received from the mail server 21.

Next, the central server 23 executes a notification statement creation process. In the central server 23, when the image signal transfer preparation completion command is notified, the service control unit 74 acquires the call information of the call by referring to the call information table 73, and further refers to the secondary service procedure table 77. Then, the service identification code of the secondary service for the service type is obtained. Secondary service procedure table 77 shown in FIG.
If, "# 290" is acquired as the service identification code. Then, the service control unit 74 notifies the command creation unit 75 of the acquired call information and the secondary service identification code in accordance with a notification message delivery request command creation instruction. The command creation unit 75 that has received the notification message delivery request command creation instruction assembles the secondary service dialing procedure from the notified call information and the service identification code of the secondary service, and attaches the assembled secondary service procedure. The command transmission unit 76 is instructed to transmit the notification message delivery request. The command transmitting unit 76 transmits the notification message delivery request command to the mail server 21 based on the instruction, and the notification message creation process ends here.

In the mail server 21, when the command receiving unit 64 receives the notification message delivery request command, the mail creation unit 65 sets the secondary service procedure in the received command in the “From:” field and sends the notification message mail. Is created, and the e-mail transmitting unit 66 sends the notification e-mail
Send to In FIG. 6, the content of the notification mail is shown as "call acceptance notification text". In the example shown in FIG. 6, "# 29051465 ## f-net.or.jp" is described in the "From:" field of the call admission notice, of which "# 290" is the time as a secondary service. This is a request code for canceling the designated transmission, and the next “51465” indicates the call acceptance number.

If the user 20 wants to cancel the time-specified delivery, a mailer is used in the user's electronic mail terminal and the call acceptance notice sent from the mail server 21 is returned as it is. When the user selects a reply in the mailer, "Fro
A mail in which the address information in the “m:” field is stored as it is in the “To:” field is created and returned, so that a secondary service (cancel) request is issued to the user 2.
0 is transmitted to the mail server 21 side. The content of the mail at this time is shown as "transmission of a time designation cancellation request" in FIG. The mail server 21 receiving the secondary service request e-mail,
A transmission request (secondary service) command is transmitted to the central server 23 as in the case of the primary service.

The central server 23 that has received the call request (secondary service) command executes a secondary service process.
Thereafter, as in the case of the primary service, a call acceptance notice is transmitted to the user side. The call acceptance notice at this time is the "call acceptance notice of time designation cancellation" in FIG. Since no further secondary service for the time designation cancellation service is assumed, the content of the “From:” field in the “time acceptance cancellation call acceptance notification” is not the secondary service procedure but the management of the mail communication system. Email address is set for the person.

Next, a description will be given of a case where, after performing a broadcast communication by the broadcast service, some of the destinations are unreachable and a retransmission is requested to the unreachable destination as a secondary service. . FIG. 7 is a processing sequence diagram showing an outline of the processing, and FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for exchanging e-mail between the sending user and the mail communication system.

Here, as in the case shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, two services, that is, broadcast and time-specified delivery, are designated,
It is assumed that the user has transmitted a primary request service request mail (“mail transmission” in FIG. 8) to the mail server. Here, if only the broadcast service is used, the content of the “To:” field of the service request mail is “# 233 * 01
*02##@f-net.or.jp ". As a result, a call acceptance notice is transmitted from the mail server to the user as in the case described above. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, when the designated time comes, delivery from the FAX server to the facsimile terminal which is the destination is performed, and the server which has delivered the message to the called party,
A delivery completion command, which is a command for notifying the delivery result, is sent to the central server. In FIG. 7, a command from the FAX server is enclosed in [].

The central server that has received the delivery completion command performs a notification message creation process for creating a delivery result notification message. Here, the secondary service identification code is “# 211”
Except for (retransmission request), the same processing as in the above-described call acceptance notification statement creation is performed. Then, a notification message delivery request is sent from the central server to the mail server, and the mail server sends a delivery result notification message to the user. The contents of the delivery result notice are shown as "delivery result notice" in FIG. In the delivery result notice, the content of the “From:” field is “#21151465##@f-net.or.jp”, which is a dialing procedure for the secondary service of retransmission. I have.

If the user wishes to request retransmission to the non-delivery destination, the mailer is used in the user's electronic mail terminal, and the delivery result notification sent from the mail server is returned as it is. I do. When the user selects a reply in the mailer, the "From:"
A mail in which the address information of the field is stored in the “To:” field as it is is created and returned, whereby a secondary service (retransmission) request is transmitted from the user to the mail server. The content of the mail at this time is shown as “transmission of retransmission request” in FIG. The mail server receiving the e-mail for the secondary service request sends a transmission request (secondary service)
The central server that transmits the command to the central server and receives the call request (secondary service) command executes a service process for retransmission. Thereafter, as in the case of the primary service, a call acceptance notice is transmitted to the user side. The call acceptance notice at this time is the "retransmission call acceptance notice" in FIG. Since no further secondary service for the retransmission service is assumed, the contents of the “From:” field in the “retransmission call admission notice” are not secondary service procedures but are sent to the administrator of the mail communication system. Email address is set.

As described above, according to the present invention, in the notification electronic mail from the mail communication system to the user,
The source information (contents of the “From:” field) in the data portion is set with an address corresponding to a secondary service that the user may request next. This allows the user to request a secondary service without having to modify the address information each time.

Next, a countermeasure will be described for a case where a notification sent from the mail communication system becomes an error before reaching the user due to an error in the communication line or the like. According to the present invention, in response to a first service request from a user, address information for the corresponding secondary service request is added to the notification message to the user. , Set only the source information of the data part of the e-mail, and give a different name to the source information in the envelope part used for the delivery control by SMTP etc. When returning to the mail communication system side, secondary services not requested by the user are not activated.

Next, a description will be given of a process when a plurality of secondary services are assumed in response to a service request from a user. For example, as for the time-specified delivery service, a delivery time change service for changing the specified delivery time may be considered in addition to the time-specified transmission cancellation service. The broadcast service may be canceled in addition to requesting retransmission. In addition, various secondary services can be considered.

When a plurality of secondary services can be assumed in this way, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the contents of the “From:” field of the notification message from the mail communication system to the user are Use a general e-mail address for service reception. At the same time, an attached file combining address information and a service menu name corresponding to each secondary service is attached to the notification message and transmitted to the user. In the figure, the address “2ndrecv@fnet.or.jp” shown in the “From:” field is an address for receiving a secondary service using an attached file. The name of the attached file is, for example, “* secondary service procedure ## (name)”
And the secondary service dialing procedure and the secondary service name, and the description of the secondary service corresponding to the file is described as the content of the attached file. At present, many mailers employ a GUI (Graphical User Interface). In such a mailer, an operation of attaching a file to an e-mail or deleting an attached file from the e-mail is performed by a pointing device such as a mouse. It can be easily performed by a drag-and-drop operation or the like. Therefore, the user can easily confirm the service contents to be received from now on and can easily select the secondary service.

In the example shown in FIG. 9, the user who has received the notification mail to which a plurality of attached files for the secondary service are attached leaves only the attached file corresponding to the required secondary service menu, and leaves other attached files. By performing a reply operation after leaving no attached file, a desired secondary service can be selected. In this case, GU
In the mailer screen of I, unnecessary attachments can be removed by moving the mail outside the notification text mail by dragging the mouse or the like. In this way, after leaving only one attached file corresponding to the desired secondary service menu, the user performs a reply operation.
The mail communication system determines the requested secondary service from the attached file name and performs call processing. In the illustrated example, since the secondary service request mail to which only the attachment file for communication cancellation is transmitted to the mail communication system side, the secondary service processing of service cancellation is performed. In this configuration, the secondary service request mail is transmitted to the mail communication system with the file corresponding to the service desired by the user, so that the user can intuitively understand.

In the example shown in FIG. 10, a user who has received a notification mail to which a plurality of attached files for the secondary service have been attached is only allowed to attach the attached file corresponding to the required secondary service menu except for the notification message. A desired secondary service can be selected by moving to a place and performing a reply operation after leaving other attached files as they are. Moving the attachment may be a delete operation,
In addition, the operation of registration to another file may be performed. Thus, after removing one attached file corresponding to the desired secondary service menu from the notification text mail, the user performs a reply operation. The mail communication system stores a list of files attached when the notification message is sent. When the mail communication system receives the notification text mail (a secondary service request mail viewed from the user) returned from the user, the mail communication system collates the file attached to the mail with the above-mentioned list, and records the file in the list. A file that is found but not attached to the received mail is searched for, and the searched file corresponds to the secondary service, and the call processing of the secondary service is executed. According to this configuration, even if three or more secondary services are available, the user only needs to operate one file, and the user can save the file deleted by dragging in his own directory. It can also be used as a record of what kind of secondary service was requested.

As described above, by attaching an attached file in which the address information corresponding to each secondary service and the service menu name are attached to the notification message and transmitting it to the user side, the user can be complicated. A secondary service can be immediately received by a simple operation of selecting an attached file without inputting e-mail address information.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention, the sender information of the notification text mail transmitted to the sender user includes:
By setting the address information indicating the secondary service request, the originating user can simply perform the reply operation of the notification text mail by the mailer at the e-mail terminal, without changing the complicated address information, etc. There is an effect that a secondary service request can be easily made.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a mail server and an integrated server in a mail communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a call information table.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a secondary service procedure table.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram generally showing a data flow between a user and a mail communication system in the mail communication system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a processing sequence diagram showing a processing procedure when a time designation cancellation service is executed.

FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram showing a data flow between the user and the mail communication system when using the time designation cancellation service.

FIG. 7 is a processing sequence diagram showing a processing procedure when executing a retransmission request service.

FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing a data flow between a user and a mail communication system when a retransmission request service is used.

FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a data flow between a user and a mail communication system when there are a plurality of secondary services.

FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing another example of the data flow between the user and the mail communication system when there are a plurality of secondary services.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a mail communication system.

FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram showing a data flow between a user and a mail communication system in the mail communication system.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a general data structure of an electronic mail.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a mail server and a central server in a mail communication system operating according to the sequence of FIG. 12;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Internet 12 E-mail terminal 13 Public telephone network 14 Facsimile terminal 20 User 21 Mail server 22 FAX server 23 General server 35 Image storage directory 61 Mail reception unit 62,75 Command creation unit 63,76 Command transmission unit 64,71 Command reception unit 65 mail creation unit 66 mail transmission unit 72 command analysis unit 73 call information table 74 service control unit 77 secondary service procedure table

Continuation of the front page (56) References Hisato Miyachi, "Development of a new service for F-net, start of file transfer service", NTT Technical Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 56-60, Electric Corporation Communications Association, March 1, 1997 Shin Yoshimura, "Internet Use and Mechanism (12) Application of E-mail", UNIX MAGAZINE, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 42-50, ASCII Corporation, April 1, 1994 (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04L 12/58 H04M 3/42

Claims (11)

(57) [Claims] 1. A service request mail transmitted from an electronic mail terminal is received, a service process specified in the service request mail is executed, and data is transmitted to a receiving terminal of a destination specified in the service request mail. In a mail communication method for transmitting a notification associated with the service processing to the electronic mail terminal as a notification mail, the sender information in the notification mail includes a plurality of secondary services.
Secondary service request hand secondary service corresponding to the service processing specified by the service request mail of-bis
When address information indicating the order is set, and a reply process is performed on the notification message mail that has reached the e-mail terminal, the returned notification message mail is accepted as a secondary service request mail, and the secondary service request mail is received. A mail communication method, wherein the processing of the secondary service is executed in response to a service request mail. 2. A service request mail transmitted from an electronic mail terminal is received, a service process specified in the service request mail is executed, and data is transmitted to a receiving terminal of a destination specified in the service request mail. And a mail communication method of transmitting a notification accompanying the service processing to the electronic mail terminal as a notification mail, wherein the notification mail is used for transfer control in a network as an electronic mail; A second part that is not used for transfer control in the network but includes the contents as an e-mail. The source information in the second part of the notification mail includes a plurality of secondary services among a plurality of secondary services. 2 of the secondary service corresponding to the service process specified by the service request mail
Setting address information indicating a next service request procedure ; setting source information in the first part of the notification text mail to information different from the source information of the second part; If the returning process is performed on the reached the notice sentence mail receives the notice sentence mails sent back as a secondary service request mail, executes the processing of the second service in response to the second service request mail An e-mail communication method characterized by: 3. The receiving terminal is a facsimile terminal, and transmits to the receiving terminal after converting a format of a data portion of the service request mail.
Email communication method described in. 4. When a plurality of types of secondary services are assumed in correspondence with service processing specified in the service request mail, an attached file containing address information for each of the secondary services. Is attached to the notification message mail, and when the returned notification message mail is received as the secondary service request mail, processing of the secondary service corresponding to the attached mail attached to the secondary service request mail The mail communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the method is executed. 5. When a plurality of types of secondary services are assumed in correspondence with service processing specified in the service request mail, an attached file containing address information for each of the secondary services. Is attached to the notification message mail. When the returned notification message mail is received as the secondary service request mail, it is attached to the original notification message mail but is attached to the secondary service request mail. The mail communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an attached file that has not been detected is detected, and processing of a secondary service corresponding to the detected attached file is performed. 6. When displaying the notification text mail on the electronic mail terminal, the attached file is made up of the address information of the mail for receiving the secondary service and the item name indicating the contents of the corresponding secondary service. The mail communication method according to any one of claims 4 and 5, wherein the mail communication method is displayed by being combined. 7. A service request mail transmitted from an electronic mail terminal is received, a service process specified in the service request mail is executed, and data is transmitted to a receiving terminal of a destination specified in the service request mail. A mail communication system for transmitting a notification accompanying the service processing to the electronic mail terminal as a notification text mail, wherein the electronic mail terminal is connected via a network and has a mail sending / receiving function, A service management server for executing a service process specified in the service request mail, wherein an identification code of a secondary service corresponding to the service process is stored for each type of service process in the service server. A secondary service procedure table, and by referring to the secondary service procedure table,
Address information indicating a secondary service request corresponding to the service process specified in the service request mail is set in the sender information in the notification mail, and a reply is sent to the notification mail that has reached the electronic mail terminal. When the processing is performed and the mail is received by the mail server, the returned notification text mail is used as a secondary service request mail, and the management server executes the secondary service processing according to the secondary service request mail. Communications system. 8. A service request mail transmitted from an electronic mail terminal is received, a service process specified in the service request mail is executed, and data is transmitted to a receiving terminal of a destination specified in the service request mail. A mail communication system for transmitting a notification accompanying the service processing to the electronic mail terminal as a notification text mail, wherein the electronic mail terminal is connected via a network and has a mail sending / receiving function, A service management server for executing a service process specified in the service request mail, wherein an identification code of a secondary service corresponding to the service process is stored for each type of service process in the service server. The following service procedure table is provided, and the notification mail is used for transfer control in the network. A first portion, the to transfer control in the network is not used is composed of a second part containing the contents of the e-mail, by referring to the secondary service procedure table,
Address information indicating a secondary service request corresponding to the service process specified in the service request mail is set in the sender information in the second part of the notification text mail, and the first information of the notification text mail is set. In the case where information different from the source information of the second part is set in the source information of the part, and the notification message mail arriving at the e-mail terminal is subjected to reply processing and received by the mail server In the mail communication system, the returned notification text mail is used as a secondary service request mail, and the central server executes a secondary service process according to the secondary service request mail. 9. A facsimile terminal, wherein the receiving terminal is a facsimile terminal, the mail server converts the format of a data portion of the service request mail into image information, stores the image information, and assigns an image file name. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the facsimile server obtains image information from the mail server according to the image file name notified from the general server, and sends the image information to a destination facsimile terminal.
Or the mail communication system according to 8. 10. When a plurality of types of secondary services are assumed in correspondence with service processing specified in the service request mail, an attached file containing address information for each of the secondary services. Is attached to the notification message mail, and when the returned notification message mail is received as the secondary service request mail, the integrated server corresponds to the attached mail attached to the secondary service request mail. The mail communication system according to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the mail communication system executes processing of a secondary service. 11. When a plurality of types of secondary services are assumed to correspond to service processing specified in the service request mail, an attached file containing address information for each of the secondary services. Is attached to the notification message mail, and when the returned notification message mail is received as the secondary service request mail, the integrated server is attached to the original notification message mail but the secondary service The e-mail communication system according to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein an attached file that is not attached to the request e-mail is detected, and processing of a secondary service corresponding to the detected attached file is performed.