JP3513174B2 - Status management processing method by file name - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a processing method for managing the status of a managed object in an electronic mail system or the like. In particular, by managing the status by a file name, a file which enables efficient processing. The present invention relates to a state management processing method by name.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electronic mail system is a series of systems that electronically sends, processes and receives electronic mail in a computer network. In the conventional electronic mail system, the mail status was managed as follows.

(1) Management of sending date and time When sending a mail, the mail has a sending date and time field and holds the sending date and time.

(2) Since the contents of the mail differ depending on the management type of the mail type, the type is determined by analyzing the contents.

(3) Management of Status in Received Book The search status / received status of the mail in the received book is managed by providing some management means such as a status management file.

(4) Management of the serial number of the enclosed item The serial number is managed by the contents of the mail, and when it is necessary to know the serial number, the contents of the mail are analyzed to make the determination.

[0007]

In the management of the status of mails in the conventional electronic mail system, information indicating the status is held in the mail itself, or a mechanism for managing the status is separately provided. It had the following drawbacks.

(1) Since the information exists in the mail, open (O) the file to acquire and set the information.
PEN). (2) If you do not analyze the contents of the email, you will not know the type of the email.

(3) By separately providing a mechanism for managing the status, the management mechanism becomes complicated, and when grasping the status or changing the status, refer to the contents of the mail or management file. It takes time to process because it needs to be updated.

Not only the electronic mail system but also a data processing system using a general file has the same problem because the management information of some state is usually held in the file. Note that some systems have state management information in a memory instead of a file, but when there are many management targets, it becomes difficult to associate the management targets with the management information, and management is performed when there is a system failure or when the power is turned off. There is a problem that it is difficult to guarantee the content of information.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and efficiently manage the status of mails and the like.

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a processing device including a CPU and a memory.

According to the present invention, the file name is determined so that a part or all of the file name includes a specific character string indicating each state corresponding to each state of the management target in the system that handles the file (process (a )), Assign to the created file.

Then, the state of the management target is managed by the file name (process (b)). It also monitors whether there is a change in the status of the management target (processing (c)), and if there is a change in the status, changes the file name to the file name corresponding to the new status (processing (d)).

Particularly, in the present invention, in the electronic mail system, the file names of the message document, the basic mail information file, etc., are read, the unread status, the retrieved status, and the retrieval status of the mail.
It is defined corresponding to each state such as the completed state . If there is a status change, the file name of the file related to the mail is changed to the file name corresponding to the new status, and the mail status is managed by the file name.

[0016]

[Operation] Since the status is known from the file name, the current status can be grasped without opening the file. Even if the status changes, it is only necessary to change the file name, and it is not necessary to update the substance of the file.
Further, it is not necessary to provide a separate state management mechanism, and the state management can be realized only by using the function of searching the existing file name.

The present invention relates to an electronic mail system,
E-mail status management is performed by file name, and especially mail unsearched (unread) status, searched status, retrieved status, etc. are identified by file name (including extension), which simplifies and improves management. Will be possible.

[0018]

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This system is a server / client type system, and includes a client 20 for issuing a mail request and a processor group of a mail server 21 for sending and delivering mail. The mail request processing unit 22 of the client 20 has a user interface, and is a unit that processes a mail transmission request, a search request, and the like.

The LAN managers 23 and 24 have a communication control function between the client and the server. Mail server 2
The mail management system 25 in FIG.
Process requests for mail from 0. The mail control unit 26 is a unit that receives a request from the client 20 and controls client connection and the like. The process control unit 27 controls the activation of the process according to the request. The delivery control unit 28 discriminates between delivery of the mail within this system (hereinafter referred to as its own node) and delivery of the mail to another system (hereinafter referred to as other node), and controls the delivery of the mail.

The remote transmission unit 29 controls the sending of mail to other nodes. The communication control unit 31 is a unit that controls communication with other nodes. In addition, the remote distribution unit 30
Is a part that receives and processes mail delivery requests from other nodes. The communication network 34 is a line network such as a public line, and is connected to another system (other node) 35.

The request queue 32 is a queue to which information relating to a mail for which a call is requested is connected. The mailbox (MS) 33 is a storage for mail information prepared for each recipient.

The mail transmission is carried out as follows. Less than,
A description will be given according to S1 to S8 shown in FIG. (S1) The client 20 creates basic mail information, document management information, and message document files in the request queue 32 of the server 21.

(S2) Next, the client 20 determines the LA
A mail transmission request is sent to the mail management system 25 via the N managers 23 and 24. (S3) The mail control unit 26 creates a transmission list in response to the request and requests the process control unit 27 for distribution processing.

(S4) The process control unit 27 activates the delivery control unit 28 for sending the mail. (S5) The delivery control unit 28 activates the remote transmission unit 29 if the destination of the mail is from another node.

(S6) The remote sending unit 29 sends a mail to the other system 35 of the destination via the communication control unit 31. (S7) The delivery control unit 28 delivers the mail to the destination of the own node if the destination of the mail is the own node.

(S8) The distribution control unit 28, after the distribution is completed,
The basic information of the mail, the document management information, and the message document are deleted, and the process ends. Further, the mail delivery from the other system 35 (this is called remote delivery) is performed as shown by R1 to R6 in FIG.

(R1) The remote delivery unit 30 operates upon the arrival of a mail from the other system 35. (R2) The mail information from the other system 35 is connected to the reception request queue 32 via the communication control unit 31.

(R3) The remote distribution unit 30 requests the process control unit 27 to make a call. (R4) The process control unit 27 activates the delivery control unit 28 for sending a mail.

(R5) The delivery control unit 28 delivers the mail to the destination of its own node. (R6) The delivery control unit 28 deletes the basic information of the mail, the document management information, and the message document after the delivery is completed. Further, the mail delivery report is connected to the request queue 32 to make a transmission request, and the process is terminated.

Mailbox (MS) in this embodiment
The directory of the request queue and the request queue are configured as shown in FIG. Mailboxes 33-1 and 33-
2, ... Are provided for each user u0000001 and u0000002. The request queue 32 is common to all. Dotted arrows shown in FIG. 3 indicate link relationships.

In the mailbox 33 and the request queue 32, each directory is used as follows. ou
The tlog is a directory in which files for holding various information of the mail such as additional information of the mail, date and time of sending, and recipient information are saved.

The inlog is a directory for holding the reception list (reception history management information) of the receiver. body
attr is a directory for holding management information of a document sent by mail or a document received by a recipient.

The bodypart is a directory for holding the document body sent by mail or the document body received by the recipient. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the mail 1 is a mail having one message document body, and the mail 2
Is an email with two message document bodies. The contents of the files for these emails 1 and 2 are:
It is as shown in FIG. In addition, shown in FIG.
Corresponds to the files of ~ shown in FIG.

A file (,) whose file name extension is ipm is a file which holds basic information about mail. Specifically, history information such as sending date and time, information about envelopes (envelopes) such as sender name and priority, content information such as expiration date and reply deadline, type of body (document body), number of body parts, etc. It has information and information about the recipient.

The file name extension is aNN (NN is 01
Files with serial numbers starting with (,,) are files that retain message management information. For example, title, creator, creation date and time, last update date and time, update count, data body size, annotation, version number, page number, first page number, owner, latest registration date and time, last registration date and time, expiration date,
It manages information such as keywords and reference dates.

The extension of the file name is cNN (NN is 01
A file (,,) having a serial number starting with is a file that holds a message (this is also referred to as a body) that is the document body.

There are as many pairs of message management information and message body files as there are bodies. A file whose file name extension is inX (X is 0, 1, 2, or 3) is the same as the ipm file.

In addition, there is a file whose file name extension is ipn, and this file name indicates that the type of mail is a report that reports the result of transmission and reception. In addition to the information about the envelope, the information includes information such as the reason why reception is not possible, the reason for discarding, and comments in the case of notification of reception failure, the reception date and time when reception notification is received, and the reception type (manual / automatic).

Mail 1 is sent from user u0000002 to user u000
The case where the call is sent to 0001 will be described as an example. Caller (u0
000002) sends the mail 1, a file of basic mail information having a file name of “mail 1.ipm” is created in the directory outlog of the request queue 32. This “mail 1.ipm” is also pointed from the directory outlog of the mailbox 33-2 of the sender (u0000002) at the time of sending. Also, the message management information file “mail 1.a01” is connected to the bodyattr of the request queue 32, and the file “mail 1.c01” of the transmitted document body is connected to the bodypart.

The mails stored in the request queue 32 are delivered by the mail management system 25 to the mailbox 33-1 of the recipient (u0000001). When the mail is delivered, the directory inlo of the mailbox 33-1
A reception list (substantially the same as "mail1.ipm") with a file name of "mail1.in0" is created in g, and the message management information of "mail1.a01" and the bodypart are subordinate to that bodyattr. The file of the received document body of "mail 1.c01" is connected to.

The contents of the file relating to these mails 1 are not separately stored in the mailbox 33 and the request queue 32 of each user, but are actually stored in common in the actual file 40 as shown in FIG. , Eg UNI
It is managed by a file system of X (OS developed by AT & T, USA).

That is, when referring to the basic information of the mail, the sender (u0000002) side has a file of u0000002 / outlog / mail 1.ipm, and the receiver (u0000001) side has a u000
The file of 0001 / inlog / mail 1.in0 will be referenced, but actually the same file will be referenced. This is referred to as common reception and transmission records.

Next, the embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. As described above, in the present embodiment, the files stored in the directories can be identified by the file name, for example, the following information.

(1) Date and time when the sender sent the mail. (2) The type of mail that is sent by the sender, that conveys the status of the recipient, or is still being created.

(3) State of how the recipient processed the mail in the reception list. (4) If there is an enclosed document in the email document, the serial number of the enclosed item. Therefore, the file name of each directory is decided as follows. 1. outlog XXXXXXXX.ipm: Indicates that the type of mail is outgoing mail.

XXXXXXXX.ipn: Indicates that the type of mail is report. XXXXXXXX.tmp: Indicates that the mail is still being created. 2. inlog XXXXXXXX.inN: N (0 to 3) in the extension identifies the status of the reception list.

0: Not searched (unread) status 1: Searched status 2: Extracted status 3: Deleted status 3. bodyattr XXXXXXXX.aNN: NN in the extension indicates the rank of the body part.

In other words, a01, a0 according to the number of bodies
The extension of 2, ... is added. 4. bodypart XXXXXXXX.cNN: NN in the extension, indicating that the document corresponds to the aNN of the management information.

That is, c01, c0 according to the number of bodies
The extension of 2, ... is added. In addition, in the above file name
XXXXXXXX is generated using the date and time when the caller made the call as a key.

In FIG. 5, the user A is the mail server 2
When logging in to server 1, the server searches the directory inlog of user A's mailbox 33 (Fig. 5).
Then, the result is transmitted to the user A. At the time of this search, the status can be determined by the mail file name.

The mail sent by user B is temporarily stored in the request queue 32 (FIG. 5). The file name of the mail can be used to distinguish between the report sent as mail and the report.

User A can receive a mail if there is any unreceived mail. At this time, the directory bodypar in the mailbox 33
The correspondence between t and bodyattr can be determined by the file name (FIG. 5).

The sent mail is read by the delivery control unit 28 (FIG. 5) and delivered within its own node (FIG. 5). If it is addressed to another node, remote transmitter 2
9 (Fig. 5) and send it to the outside (Fig. 5).

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of a mail sending process according to the embodiment of the present invention. The following processes are performed in sending an email. (a) A unique file name is generated in the request queue 32 in response to a mail transmission request.

(B) A file is created with the extension of the file name being tmp. (c) Write mail information in a file. (d) If the created file is a basic information (IPM) file, process (e) is executed, and if it is a report information file, process (f) is executed.

(E) The extension of the file name is ipm. (f) The extension of the file name is ipn. (g) Request the mail server 21 to perform the calling process.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a mailbox search process when receiving a mail according to the embodiment of the present invention.
In response to a search request for unread mail, the process (a) shown in FIG. 7 is performed.

(A) inlo in the mailbox 33
Search for files in g. (b) Search for a file whose extension is in0. If not, the process ends.

(C) If there is a file with extension in0,
The file name is returned to the request source. (d) The extension is changed to in1 to indicate that it has been searched.

Further, in response to the request for extracting the received mail, the processing (B) shown in FIG. 7 is performed. (e) Search the file in the inlog in the mailbox 33.

(F) The contents of the designated file are returned to the request source. (g) Change the extension to in2, indicate that it has been taken out, and end the processing.

Further, in response to the document deletion request, the processing of (c) shown in FIG. 7 is performed. (h) Search the files in the bodypart and bodyattr directories.

(I) bodypa with specified file name
Delete the files under rt and bodyattr. (j) Search in the inlog directory.

(K) The extension of the designated file name is changed to in3, indicating that the file has been deleted, and the process ends. By handling the file names in the electronic mail system as described above, the load on the electronic mail system can be reduced as follows.

(1) When performing a search in the inlog of the mailbox (unreceived / received, etc.), it is possible to know the status of the mail by the file name. Higher speed can be achieved.

(2) The delivery process (delivery control unit 28) in the mail management system 25 is outl of the request queue 32.
Since the type of the mail can be determined by looking at the file name of "og", the processing can be separated without analyzing the contents of the mail.

(3) If the system goes down during mail creation, by looking at the file name in the request queue 32, it is possible to determine whether the mail is being created, so the recovery process is simplified.

[0068]

[0069]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the status can be known from the file name without opening the file, the status management can be performed efficiently. In particular, in an electronic mail system, there is an effect that the management of mail information can be simplified and made more efficient by using it for status management of mail.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a directory configuration example of a mailbox and a request queue.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a file structure of a mail.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a mail transmission processing flowchart according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a mailbox search process when a mail is received according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 processor

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Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. Electronic mail for electronically sending and receiving mail
In the status management processing method in the system, regarding the received mail, the sending date and time of the mail and the
File containing the basic information, including
Make sure that part of the rule name contains a specific character string that indicates unread status
Specify the file name in and register it in the mail recipient's inbox
In response to the process and search request for unread mail from mail recipients,
A file containing a specific character string indicating the unread state from the reception book.
It searches for the file name and returns the file name to the request source.
In some of the above file names, other
The process of renaming a file to include a specific string
And the mail retrieval request from the mail recipient is specified.
Return the contents of the created file to the request source and
Another part of the file name that indicates that the file has already been fetched
The process of changing the file name to include the character string of
A state management processing method using a file name characterized by: 2. A status tube with the file name according to claim 1.
When referring to the file that holds the basic information of the email in the processing method,
When the mail sender side and the mail recipient side are different,
A state management processing method by file name, which refers to the same file by file name.