JP5120986B2 - Information processing apparatus, web mail system, control method and program. - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to control during transmission of electronic mail.

  In recent years, patents have been conceived in which e-mail transmission / reception apparatuses manage e-mail status (reply mail, unreply mail, etc.) and display them at an appropriate timing.

  As one of them, Patent Document 1 discloses a system that displays a list of reception statuses of reply mails to transmitted mails. Specifically, when sending multiple types of e-mail to many people and expecting a reply e-mail, who sent the reply and who did not come for each sent e-mail Resolves the problem that it is necessary to perform cumbersome manual operations to know etc., and checking the reply status to the email received by the mail sending / receiving device becomes very complicated as the number of received emails increases Therefore, this is a technique for making it possible to know at a glance the reception status of a reply mail for a transmitted mail.

JP-A-10-187561

  According to the invention disclosed in Patent Literature 1, information (destination, title, etc.) regarding transmitted or received electronic mail is stored in a transmission mail book file, a reception mail book file, and a transmission mail book file and a reception mail book file. The reply mail book file is created and updated based on the contents of. In the reply mail book file, the sent mail is grouped by destination, and when it is determined that the reply mail has been received, the reception status column of the corresponding sent mail is updated. Then, the contents of the reply mail book file are displayed as a list on the display device 13 in response to the request.

  However, in the technique of Patent Document 1, since it is not possible to display received mails by replying for each address and not replying mails separately, it has become commonplace to receive mails from the same address with different requirements. It is complicated to manage which mail is replied among mails received from the same address.

  For this reason, when a plurality of mails are received from the same person, there is a possibility that a reply mail may be forgotten and another new mail may be sent even though there is a mail to be replied to. (For business purposes, I forgot to reply to an email that I received earlier (an important email that I should have responded to earlier) and sent another email (a less important email),・ The sender may be troublesome).

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a system that displays a warning in mail transmission when there is an unanswered mail when transmitting mail.

  That is, according to the present invention, in an information processing apparatus that stores conditions for extracting unreply mail that has not been replied to a destination address that is a mail transmission destination, when a mail operation is instructed by a user operation , Out of the mail received from the destination address extracted by using the acquisition means for acquiring the destination address of the outgoing mail and the condition for extracting the stored unreply mail, Search means for searching whether there is an unanswered mail that has not been replied to the destination address based on a condition for extracting the unanswered mail that is, and the destination address acquired by the previous acquisition means Notification that alerts that there is an unanswered mail when the unanswered mail is searched by the search means among the mail received from Characterized in that it comprises a stage.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to provide the system which displays a warning in mail transmission when there exists an unanswered mail when transmitting mail.

It is a figure which shows the function structure of the email transmission / reception apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the information processing apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process process at the time of mail transmission in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process process at the time of the non-reply mail search in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the non-reply mail table update process process at the time of mail transmission in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the non-reply mail table update process process at the time of mail reception in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process process of the regular update of the non-reply mail table in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process process of an unreply mail table update when the condition table in embodiment of this invention is newly produced. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the condition table in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a list display of the unanswered mail in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a warning when there exists an unanswered mail in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a warning when there exists an unanswered mail in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a warning when there exists an unanswered mail in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a condition setting screen of the unanswered mail table in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the condition setting address table in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the received mail table in embodiment of this invention.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an information processing apparatus used in an embodiment of the present invention. The information processing apparatus 100 transmits and receives electronic mail to the mail server 160 via the network 150.

  The transmission destination address designating unit 110 of the information processing apparatus 100 designates the transmission destination address of the electronic mail transmitted by the information processing apparatus 100 in response to the operation of the operator via the KB 209 or the like. In the present embodiment, the destination address specifying unit 110 is similar to a general application for sending and receiving e-mails and manages the To field (destination unit), CC field (carbon copy unit), and BCC field (blind). The address of the transmission destination can be individually specified in the carbon copy section).

  The text creation unit 120 of the information processing apparatus 100 creates a text part of an email transmitted by the information processing apparatus 100 in response to an operation of the operator via the KB 209 or the like.

  The address book 130 of the information processing apparatus 100 is stored in the external memory 211 or the like, and is an address in which a destination e-mail address is associated with a plurality of address attributes (attribute information) such as names and organizations. Contains multiple pieces of information.

  The erroneous transmission prevention unit 140 of the information processing apparatus 100 executes processing for preventing undesirable transmission such as transmission of an email transmitted by the information processing apparatus 100 to an incorrect transmission destination. As shown in FIG. 2, the erroneous transmission prevention unit 140 includes an address specification processing unit 141, an address address specification processing unit 142, an address inspection processing unit 143, and a transmission control processing unit 144.

  The address specification processing unit 141 of the information processing apparatus 100 scans the body of the e-mail created by the body creation unit 120, detects a name attribute character string such as a name stored in the address book 130, and sends it to the destination Identify the address.

  The address address specification processing unit 142 of the information processing apparatus 100 specifies an e-mail address (address address) corresponding to the address specified by the address specification processing unit 141.

  The address check processing unit 143 of the information processing apparatus 100 checks the consistency between the destination address specified by the destination address specification processing unit 142 and the e-mail address (destination address) specified by the destination address specifying unit 110. I do.

The transmission control processing unit 144 of the information processing apparatus 100 controls transmission / reception of electronic mail according to the inspection result of the address inspection processing unit 143.
The information processing apparatus 100 is connected to the network 150.

  The mail server 160 transmits an electronic mail transmitted from the information processing apparatus 100 via the network 150 to the outside of the network.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus (computer) in the embodiment of the present invention.

  The CPU 201 comprehensively controls each device and controller connected to the system bus 204. Further, the ROM 203 or the external memory 211 is necessary for realizing a BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) or an operating system program (hereinafter referred to as an OS), which is a control program of the CPU 201, or a function executed by each server or each PC. Various programs to be described later are stored. The RAM 202 functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 201.

  The CPU 201 loads a program or the like necessary for execution of processing from the ROM 202 or the external memory 211 to the RAM 203 and executes the program, thereby realizing functions to be described later or processing according to a flowchart.

  An input controller (input C) 205 controls input from a pointing device such as a keyboard 209 or a mouse (not shown).

  A video controller (VC) 206 controls display on a display device such as a CRT display (CRT) 210. The display device is not limited to the CRT, but may be a display using another method such as liquid crystal. These are used by the administrator as needed. A memory controller (MC) 207 is a hard disk (HD), floppy disk (registered trademark FD) or PCMCIA card slot for storing boot programs, browser software, various applications, font data, user files, editing files, various data, and the like. Controls access to an external memory 211 such as a compact flash memory connected via an adapter.

  A communication I / F controller (communication I / FC) 208 is connected to and communicates with an external device via a network, and executes communication control processing in the network. For example, Internet communication using TCP / IP is possible.

  Note that the CPU 201 enables display on the CRT 210 by executing outline font rasterization processing on a display information area in the RAM 202, for example. In addition, the CPU 201 enables a user instruction with a mouse cursor (not shown) on the CRT 210.

  A program 212 for realizing the present invention is recorded in the external memory 211 and is executed by the CPU 201 by being loaded into the RAM 202 as necessary. Furthermore, the definition file 213 and various information tables 214 used by the program 212 according to the present invention are stored in the external memory 211, and detailed description thereof will be described later.

  Next, in order to realize the embodiment of the present invention, it is necessary to set an extraction condition for extracting unreply mail from received mail. The e-mail transmission / reception apparatus creates the condition table of FIG. 9 for each address as a premise of operation. Use the condition table to define unreply mail for each address.

  In the condition table of FIG. 9, “address”, “subject”, “destination classification”, “time”, and “importance” are set as conditions.

  In the “address” item, a mail address that is a target for extracting unreply mail is set. By setting an e-mail address, when an e-mail is received from the set e-mail address or when an e-mail is sent to the set e-mail address, etc. A reply mail table is generated or updated.

  In “Subject”, a character string extracted as an unreply mail is set. In the “destination category”, it is set to which destination category the mail address of the receiving side (self) belongs. For example, whether the user is set as the destination of “To”, the user is set as the destination of “Cc”, or is set to either “To” or “Cc”. It is determined whether or not to be picked up. If no setting is made for this item, any of “To”, “Cc”, and “Bcc” is picked up as an unanswered mail for “null”. In “Time”, the time extracted as unreply mail from the time when mail is received is set. “Importance” is the level of the importance item set in the received mail.

  For example, based on the condition table illustrated in FIG. 9, the sender of the received mail is “sample@xxx.co.jp”, and the received mail subject includes the character string “Reply Required”. Mails whose extraction target time is “mail received within 24 hours” are listed as unreply mails in the unreply mail table of FIG.

  In the setting screen of FIG. 9, items for which setting values are not registered are treated as items for which conditions for extracting unreply mail are not set. For example, if nothing is set in the “subject” item in FIG. 9, the subject of the email received from the email address set in the “address” in the same setting is “within 24 hours”. Pick up all emails received in the unanswered email table.

  Next, FIG. 14 is a condition setting screen for creating a non-reply mail table displayed on the CRT display (CRT) 210 of the information processing apparatus 100. The set unanswered mail extraction conditions are stored in the condition table of FIG.

  In addition, in the setting of unanswered e-mail, as a method of setting “time”, in addition to the setting of “within ○ time after receiving e-mail”, the method of “the elapse of time after receiving e-mail” Is also possible. According to this method, it is possible to continue to display a mail that has been received as a “reply required” but left without reply without being deleted from the unreply mail table after a predetermined time. is there.

  As described above, the condition table condition setting method is not limited, and it is desirable that the condition table is set in a convenient manner when the information processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied is used. Based on the created condition table, a non-reply mail table is created for each address.

  When the condition table of FIG. 9 is created, a condition setting address table (FIG. 15) associated with the “address” item is generated. In the condition setting address table of FIG. 15, the address where the extraction condition of unreply mail is set is stored in the value, and the condition table of FIG. 9 and the unreply mail table of FIG. 10B are stored in association with the address. It becomes the composition which is done.

  These data tables shown in FIGS. 9, 10B, and 15 are stored and stored in a predetermined path of the external memory 211 of the information processing apparatus 100, and are temporarily stored in the RAM 202 when each data table is read. In addition, records are added and updated in the data table, and are also stored in a predetermined path at the time of writing.

  Next, a series of processes in the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing at the time of mail transmission of the electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The process shown in FIG. 3 is executed when the e-mail transmission / reception apparatus accepts pressing of the send button displayed on the user interface when composing a mail in the state where the above-described condition table of FIG. 9 is stored. It is.

  First, in step S101, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 is set in an outgoing mail setting box (specifically, an outgoing mail To box). Update the table and search whether there is an unanswered mail among the received mails. Detailed processing of the table update and a search method from the non-reply mail table will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  Next, in step S102, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 determines whether or not there is an unreply mail in the unreply mail table of the destination address of the mail to be transmitted. If there is no unreply mail in the unreply mail table (NO), in step S114, the mail currently created by the information processing apparatus 100 is transmitted to the destination mail address (step S115), and this process is terminated. And

  If it is determined in step S102 that there is an unanswered mail (YES), the process proceeds to step S103, and the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus says "There is an unanswered mail. Do you want to display the mail list?" Display a warning. The warning screen displayed at this time is the dialog screen of FIG.

  The first warning screen in FIG. 11 displays a warning “There is an unanswered mail with the following address. Do you want to display an unanswered mail?” Along with the target destination address ( 1101). Here, in response to an inquiry “Do you want to display unanswered mail?”, In step S104, if the “Yes” button (1102) is pressed (YES), the process proceeds to step S105, and the target mail is sent. Mail that has not been replied to is extracted from the received mail list and displayed on the display unit.

  Further, when the pressing of the “No” button (1103) is accepted from the first warning screen of FIG. 11 (NO in step S104), the process proceeds to step S107. Further, the “unanswered mail table display screen” displayed in step S105 is as shown in FIG.

  If “Yes” is accepted in step S104, the mail received from the mail address from which unanswered mail is extracted is acquired in step S105. Specifically, it generates a query statement for the email address to be sent, searches the inbox of the e-mail transmission / reception device, and executes a process of deleting received mail that should not be extracted as unreply mail from the list.

  Specifically, when the received mail is acquired, the status of the acquired received mail is confirmed in step S106. Specifically, in the received mail table of FIG. 16, received mail whose “status” item 1603 is “Replied” or “Excluded from list” is excluded from being picked up in the non-reply mail table. . The status of “Replied” is updated from “Unanswered” to “Replied” when a reply to the received mail is made. Further, the status of “not subject to list” is mail that is not listed in the unreply mail table (deleted once).

  In the unreply mail table display screen of FIG. 10, the subject (1001), the sender (1002), the transmission date and time (1003) of the unreply mail are displayed, a delete button (1005), a priority reply button (1006). It is assumed that the send button (1007) and the cancel button (1008) are displayed as they are. The sender (1002) here is the same as the destination address at the time of mail transmission in this embodiment.

  In the unreply mail table display screen, a check box is displayed next to the target unreply mail list, and selection by the check box is accepted by accepting pressing of the delete button 1005 or the priority reply button 1006. It is possible to delete the received non-reply mail from the list or reply with priority.

  By checking the check box and pressing the delete button 1005, the selected unreply mail is deleted from the unreply mail table. The status of the received mail deleted from the unanswered mail table is “not subject to list”. At this time, the “status” item 1603 in the received mail table of FIG. 16 is updated from “unanswered” to “not subject to list”.

  In addition, when an instruction of “priority reply” is received, it means that a reply to the selected mail is sent before the mail to be sent now. This will be described in S113.

  Subsequently, returning to the description of FIG. 3, in step S <b> 106, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 includes unnecessary mail (mail that does not need to be displayed as unanswered mail in the future) among the unanswered mails displayed as a list on the display unit. Is selected according to the user operation and deleted from the list. Since the deleted mail is deleted from the unreply mail table, it will not be displayed as an unreply mail in the future.

  In step S106, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 accepts deletion from the unreplyed mail table as a whole, and upon accepting pressing of the “send send button 1007” in FIG. 10, in step S107, “There is unanswered mail. , Do you want to send an e-mail? "Displays a second warning screen. The second warning screen displayed here is as shown in FIG.

  In step S108, if “Yes” is selected on the second warning screen in FIG. 12 (YES), the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 transmits the mail that is currently being transmitted, The process ends. If “No” is selected on the second warning screen of FIG. 12 (NO), the process proceeds to step S109.

  In step S109, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 stops the transmission of the mail that is currently being transmitted, and stores the mail in the draft box.

  Next, in step S <b> 110, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 displays a dialog screen stating “Do you want to perform reply processing for unanswered mail?”. The dialog screen displayed here is as shown in FIG.

  In step S111, if the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 accepts the selection of “Yes” on the dialog screen of FIG. 13 (YES), the process proceeds to step S112, and the unreply mail table display screen of FIG. 10 is displayed again. indicate. Further, when the selection of “No” is accepted on the dialog screen of FIG. 13 (NO), the processing in this figure is terminated.

  In step S112, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 displays the unreply mail table display screen of FIG. 10 and accepts selection of unreply mail that should be subjected to reply processing first. As described above, the selection method is realized by accepting a check in the check box displayed beside the unreply mail list and accepting pressing of the priority transmission button 1006.

  According to the process of FIG. 3, a list of unanswered mails is extracted and displayed for mail addresses set as destinations of mails to be sent according to the conditions set in the condition table when sending mails. This makes it possible for the user to select whether to reply to an unanswered mail first or send a mail that is currently being sent first.

  Next, processing for searching an unanswered mail table in the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing steps of unreply mail table search, and describes the detailed processing of step S101 (unreply mail search) in FIG.

  First, in step S201, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 checks whether or not the condition table of FIG. 9 has been set for the destination address of the mail that is currently being transmitted. Whether the condition table is set is checked by checking a record in the condition setting address table (FIG. 15) stored in a predetermined path of the external memory 211 of the information processing apparatus. Yes, confirm that the condition table exists. In the check of the condition table in step S201, when it is determined that the address is not an address for which the condition setting for the unreply mail is set, the processing in this figure is terminated.

  If it is determined in the check of the condition table in step S201 that the address setting for unreply mail is set, the process proceeds to step S202, and the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 determines that the mail that is currently being transmitted is It is determined whether or not it is a reply mail for an unreply mail of the corresponding destination address. If it is determined in step S202 that the mail is not a reply mail to the unanswered mail, that is, if the mail is edited on the new creation screen by accepting pressing of the “new creation” button of the electronic mail transmitting / receiving device, the process proceeds to step S204. .

  As a specific determination method, the value of the header of the mail to be transmitted at present is confirmed, and it is confirmed whether the tag of <In-reply-to> and the identification information of the received mail are attached. If there is a tag <In-reply-to>, it can be confirmed that it is a reply mail to the received mail.

  In step S203, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 temporarily excludes the mail that has been confirmed as a reply to the mail in the unanswered mail table in step S202 from the unanswered mail table.

  In step S204, it is confirmed whether or not there is an unanswered mail in the unanswered mail table ((B) of FIG. 10).

  If mails are still included in the non-reply mail table, in step S205, it is determined that there are unreply mails in the non-reply mail table, and the process returns to the flowchart of FIG.

  When no mail is included in the unreply mail table, it is determined that there is no unreply mail, and the process returns to the flowchart of FIG. 1 and proceeds to step S102.

Next, update processing of the unreply mail table in FIG. 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. There are four timings for updating the unreply mail table.
1. When sending mail (timing of step S101 in FIG. 3)
2. 2. When an email is received 3. When [Update] button is pressed When a condition table is newly created or updated, the processing method at each timing will be described below.

<1. When a mail is transmitted (timing of step S101 in FIG. 3)>
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an unreply mail table update process (when mail is transmitted). The processing steps shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 perform the following processing immediately after sending an email.

  In step S301, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 checks whether the transmitted mail is a reply mail for an unreply mail. The method of checking is as described above. However, if the check is made so that it applies to the condition table in FIG. 9, it is an email received from “sample@xxx.co.jp”, and “ It is checked whether or not the e-mail received includes the character string “” and the extraction target time is “within 24 hours”.

  As a result of the check, if it is a reply to the mail that was in the unreply mail list table, the process proceeds to step S302, and the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 sent a reply to the unreply mail. The “status” item 1603 in the 16 received mail tables is changed from the “unanswered” status to the “replyed” status. Then, the reply mail is deleted from the unreply mail table. If a plurality of e-mails are sent at the same time, in step S303, it is checked whether there is an e-mail to be updated in the next unreply mail table, and until confirmation of all reply e-mails is completed, The process of S302 is repeated.

<2. When you receive an email>
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a process of updating the unreply mail table when a mail is received. First, in step S401, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 is the sender email address for which an unanswered email table is generated, in which the sender email address of the received email is set in the condition setting address table of FIG. Check whether or not.

  If the sender mail address is not included in the condition setting address table of FIG. 15, the non-reply mail table update process is not performed and the process of FIG. If it is set in the condition setting address table of FIG. 15, in step S402, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 receives the received mail based on the conditions set in the condition table (FIG. 9) associated with the mail address. It is determined whether or not the received mail is picked up in the unreply mail table as the unreply mail based on the condition.

  For example, based on the condition table illustrated in FIG. 9, the sender of the received mail is “sample@xxx.co.jp”, and the received mail subject includes the character string “Reply Required”. The received mail whose extraction target time is “mail received within 24 hours” and whose importance is “slightly higher” or higher is added as an unreply mail to the unreply mail table. If it is determined in step S401 that the received mail is received from a mail address not set in the condition table, or if the above conditions are not met, the processing in FIG.

  If it is determined in step S401 that the received mail is an unreply mail, the received mail is added to the unreply mail table ((B) in FIG. 10) in step S402. In step S403, the received mail is added to the unreply mail table.

  If a plurality of e-mails are received at the same time, it is checked in step S403 whether there is an e-mail to be updated in the next non-reply mail table. The process of S401 and S402 is repeated until confirmation of all reply mails is completed.

<3. When [Refresh] button is clicked>
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the update process of the unanswered mail table when the [Update] button on the user interface of the electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus is pressed.

  First, in step S501, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 extracts one of the addresses set in the condition table of FIG. 15 stored in the memory 211, and based on the conditions set in each condition table. Then, it is checked whether or not there is a received mail that is deleted from the unreply mail table under conditions other than transmission / reception. For example, if the time item in the condition table is set to “mail received within 24 hours”, mail that has passed 24 hours or more after reception may have to be deleted from the table.

  If it is determined in step S501 that there is a received mail that does not satisfy the condition extracted as an unanswered mail, in step S502, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 performs target reception that does not satisfy the condition in the condition table. The mail is deleted from the unreply mail table (step S503). At the same time, since it is necessary to change the status of the email to be deleted from the unanswered email table, the “status” item 1603 in the received email table in FIG. 16 is changed from “unanswered” to a status of “not subject to list”. To do.

  In step S504, it is confirmed whether another record (unanswered mail) remains in the unanswered mail table of the mail address currently being updated. If there are other unreply mails, the process proceeds to S501 again, and the processes of S501 to S503 are repeated until there are no more records to be confirmed from the unreply mail table.

  If all the unanswered mails have been confirmed (NO in S504), the process proceeds to step S505, and it is confirmed in the condition table of FIG. 15 whether there is a mail address for updating the unanswered mail table next. I do. In the condition table of FIG. 15, when the update process of the unreply mail table for all mail addresses is completed (NO in S505), the process of this figure is terminated. If the update process of the unreply mail table for all mail addresses has not been completed (YES in S505), the process proceeds to S501 again, and the processes of S501 to S503 are repeated until there are no more records to be confirmed from the unreply mail table. .

  If a plurality of e-mails are received at the same time, it is checked in step S503 whether there is a next e-mail to be updated in the non-reply mail table. If not, the process in FIG.

<4. When a condition table is newly created or updated>
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing new creation and update processing of an unanswered mail table when a condition table is newly created or an existing unanswered mail condition is changed.

  First, in step S601, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 once deletes the unreply mail table for the address condition table whose condition setting has been updated. If the process is for an address for which a new condition table has been created, the process in this step is omitted.

  Next, in step S <b> 602, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 extracts all received emails from the email addresses for which the conditions of the unreply email table are set. In step S603, it is checked whether there is a mail that matches the unanswered mail among the received mails based on the condition setting of the newly created unreply mail or the changed condition settings.

  As the check condition, as described above, it is extracted whether there is a received mail that matches the condition set in the condition table. Based on the condition table illustrated in FIG. 9, is there a mail that includes the character string “Reply Required” in the subject of the received mail and the extraction target time falls under “mail received within 24 hours”? (Regarding “address”, the address to be updated is already selected in step S602, and the received mail is extracted therefrom, so the check in step S603 is not performed. May be.)

  If the result of the check is an unreply mail, the process proceeds to step S604, and the corresponding received mail is added to the unreply mail table. If the mail is not an unreply mail, the process proceeds to step S605, and the next received mail is sent. If there is a received mail to be checked, the same check is executed.

  In addition, if an e-mail transmission / reception device (e-mail software) currently distributed in the market has manually set a “reply deadline” for the mail received by the user, the received mail with the reply deadline set is “task” Is stored in a folder named "", and the mail software monitors the "task" folder and has a function to monitor the status of received mail that has been replied or not replied (for example, Limart's mail software "Becky! Internet Mail" (http://www.rimarts.co.jp/becky-j.htm) has the above functions). In this embodiment, by linking with this function, the emails to be monitored stored in the “task” folder, which is an existing function, are listed in the unanswered mail table generated in this embodiment. Complement each other's unanswered mail.

  As a specific method, by checking the check item 1401 displayed on the condition setting screen in FIG. 14, unreply mail extracted by the existing function of the mail software can be listed in the unreply mail table. it can. In 1401, unanswered mail included in “task” of mail software is also listed. "Is displayed.

  In the unanswered mail condition setting screen shown in FIG. 14, if the user chooses to list the unanswered mails included in the “task”, the unanswered mail table display screen 1009 shown in FIG. The stored unreply mail is displayed so that it can be understood which mail it is. In FIG. 10, 1009 displays “task” at the beginning of the subject of the mail. At this time, the mail stored in the “task” folder displayed on the unreply mail table display screen is limited to the received mail from the mail address that matches the mail address to be extracted.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to provide a system for displaying a warning in mail transmission when there is an unanswered mail when transmitting mail.

Specifically, in an information processing apparatus that stores conditions for extracting unreply mail that has not been replied to a destination address that is a mail transmission destination, when a mail operation is instructed by a user operation, Acquire the destination address of the outgoing mail, and store the previously stored mail out of the mail received from the destination address extracted by using the condition for extracting the stored unreply mail Based on the conditions for extracting unreply mail, search for whether there is an unreply mail that has not been replied to the destination address, and mail received from the destination address acquired by the previous acquisition means Among them, when an unreply mail is searched by the search means, a warning that there is an unreply mail is notified.
(Second embodiment)

  In the first embodiment, in the information processing apparatus 100 in which the e-mail transmission / reception apparatus (mail software) is installed, whether or not there is an unanswered mail among the mails received from the destination address when the mail is transmitted. In the following second embodiment, the information processing apparatus 100 and a mail server (not shown) are connected via a network typified by the Internet to send and receive electronic mail. The processing steps when the present invention is implemented using a web mail system that performs the above will be described.

  In the second embodiment, the web mail system refers to a web mail system that can be used by the web browser of the information processing apparatus 100. In order to view the received mail, a browsing screen is generated and transmitted to the information processing apparatus 100. When a new message is created or transmitted, the mail is created using the mail creation screen displayed on the web browser of the information processing apparatus 100. The text editing is performed, and a transmission instruction is executed from the information processing apparatus 100. The text and attached file of the mail instructed to be sent are received once by the mail server and the mail is generated.

  Unlike the web mail system in which mail software is installed in the information processing apparatus 100 to manage mail transmission / reception, all mail transmission / reception is managed on the server side. It is possible to create, receive and browse. The communication between the web browser as a client and the server generally uses the HTTPS scheme for security reasons.

  In each of the processing steps of the second embodiment, description of steps for performing the same processing steps as in the first embodiment of the present invention is omitted.

  In the second embodiment, it is assumed that the data tables of FIGS. 9, 10B, 15 and 16 are stored in the external memory 211 of the mail server. As a storage method, screen information on the setting screen of the condition table in FIG. 14 is generated by the mail server, and is transmitted to the information processing apparatus 100. The information processing apparatus 100 analyzes the screen information generated using the web browser and displays the setting screen of FIG. When a set value is input to a required location in FIG. 14 and the OK button is pressed, the set value is transmitted to the mail server, and a value is set in each item of the condition table in FIG.

  As in the above processing steps, the mail server generates screen information to be displayed on the information processing apparatus 100 and transmits it to the information processing apparatus 100. The information processing apparatus 100 analyzes screen information received using a web browser, displays the information on a display, and receives input of items that need to be set on each screen. The received set value (parameter) is transmitted to the mail server when a transmission instruction is given from the information processing apparatus 100, and the mail server basically sets the received parameter in an item of an appropriate data table. It has a configuration.

  Based on the above processing premise, the description of each processing step will proceed by using FIGS. 3 to 15 described in the first embodiment.

  First, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 accepts pressing of a [Send] mail of an interface (not shown) for editing web mail.

  Steps S101 to S102 are executed by the mail server. When there is an unanswered mail, the mail server displays a first warning screen in FIG. 11, a non-reply mail table display screen in FIG. 10 (A), and a second warning screen in FIG. Information is generated and transmitted to the information processing apparatus 100.

  The information processing apparatus 100 executes steps S103 to S107. The information processing apparatus 100 displays the first warning screen of FIG. 11, and when “Yes” is pressed, the unreplyed mail table display screen of FIG. 10 is displayed and unnecessary among the mails displayed in the list. 12 is deleted, the second warning screen shown in FIG. 12 is displayed in step S107, and the pressing of “Yes” is accepted.

  Steps S108 to S110 are executed by the mail server. When the mail server receives the pressing of the priority transmission button from the information processing apparatus 100 and the instruction “Yes” on the second warning screen, the mail server stores the mail being edited once in the mail server, and the dialog screen of FIG. Screen information is generated and transmitted to the information processing apparatus 100.

  In step S111, when “Yes” is pressed on the dialog screen of FIG. 13 displayed on the information processing apparatus 100, an instruction is transmitted to the mail server, and the mail server again displays the unreplyed mail table of FIG. Display screen information is generated and transmitted to the information processing apparatus 100.

  Further, regarding the unreply mail search process in FIG. 4 and the unreply mail table update process in FIGS. 5 to 8, information is received from the information processing apparatus 100 from time to time, and each processing step is realized in the mail server. This can be realized by transmitting the result to the information processing apparatus 100 again.

  As described above, in the web mail system, as in the first embodiment, it is possible to provide a system that displays a warning in mail transmission when there is an unanswered mail when sending mail.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment and the specific example were mainly explained in full detail, this invention can take the embodiment as a system, an apparatus, a method, a program, a storage medium, etc., for example, specifically, multiple The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a single device or an apparatus composed of a single device.

  The program in the present invention is a program that can be executed by a computer as the information processing apparatus 100 in accordance with the processing of the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 to 8, and the storage medium of the present invention uses the processing method in FIGS. 100 stores an executable program. Note that the program in the present invention may be a separate independent program for each processing method of each apparatus in FIGS.

  As described above, a recording medium that records a program that implements the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus stores the program stored in the recording medium. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention can also be achieved by executing the reading.

  In this case, the program itself read from the recording medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the recording medium storing the program constitutes the present invention.

  As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, a flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-ROM, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, EEPROM, silicon A disk or the like can be used.

  Further, by executing the program read by the information processing apparatus 100, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) running on the computer based on the instructions of the program However, it is needless to say that some or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written to the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board is based on the instructions of the program code. It goes without saying that the case where the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or apparatus. In this case, by reading a recording medium storing a program for achieving the present invention into the system or apparatus, the system or apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention.

  Furthermore, by downloading and reading a program for achieving the present invention from a server, database, etc. on a network by a communication program, the system or apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention. In addition, all the structures which combined each embodiment mentioned above and its modification are also included in this invention.

  In addition, each process realized by the above-described software can be realized as firmware or hardware configuration, and each process can be realized as each means. The technical scope of the present invention is realized by such firmware or hardware configuration. Is also included.

Claims (12)

In an information processing apparatus that stores conditions for extracting unreply mail that has not been replied to a destination address that is a mail destination,
An acquisition means for acquiring a destination address of an outgoing mail when an instruction to send an email is made by a user operation;
Based on the pre-stored condition for extracting the non-reply mail among the mails received from the destination address extracted by using the stored condition for extracting the non-reply mail Search means for searching whether there is an unanswered mail not replied to the destination address,
A notification means for notifying a warning that there is an unanswered mail when the unanswered mail is retrieved by the search means among the mails received from the destination address obtained by the previous obtaining means. An information processing apparatus characterized by the above.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification unit displays a list of unanswered mails among mails received from the destination address. Selection accepting means for accepting selection of whether or not to create a reply mail for the non-reply mail notified by the notification means;
If the selection accepting unit accepts a selection to create a reply mail for the unanswered mail, a storage unit that stores the mail instructed to be transmitted in a storage unit;
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a deletion unit that deletes the non-reply mail received from the list of the non-reply mails. 2. The information processing apparatus according to 2. A reply deadline setting accepting means for accepting a reply deadline setting for an unanswered email set manually by a user;
The non-reply mail that has received a reply deadline setting for the non-reply mail by the reply deadline setting accepting means as the unreply mail for notifying the warning that there is an unreply mail by the notifying means The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising notification setting means for setting whether or not to search by means.   5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting change accepting unit that accepts a setting change of a condition for extracting an unreply mail that has not been replied to a destination address that is a destination of the mail. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.   6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit does not extract an unanswered mail with respect to a mail that has been transmitted once in accordance with a predetermined condition set in advance.   7. The information processing according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit does not extract unreply mail received as a result of being transferred from another mail address in accordance with a predetermined condition set in advance. apparatus.   4. The unreply mail deleted from the unreply mail list by the delete means is not searched as an unreply mail that has not been replied to the destination address by the search means. Information processing device.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the search unit is periodically executed based on a predetermined condition set in advance. A web mail system in which an information processing apparatus that transmits and receives mail and a mail server that stores conditions for extracting unanswered mail that has not been replied to a destination address that is a mail destination can be connected ,
In the mail server,
An acquisition unit that acquires a destination address of a transmission mail based on the transmission instruction when an instruction to transmit the mail is made from the information processing apparatus;
Based on the pre-stored condition for extracting the non-reply mail among the mails received from the destination address extracted by using the stored condition for extracting the non-reply mail Search means for searching whether there is an unanswered mail not replied to the destination address,
Generates screen information for displaying a warning that there is an unanswered mail when the unanswered mail is searched by the search means among the mails received from the destination address acquired by the previous acquisition means. Screen information generating means for
Screen information transmitting means for transmitting the screen information generated by the screen information generating means to the information processing apparatus,
In the information processing apparatus,
Mail sending means for accepting the mail sending instruction;
A web mail system comprising: a display means for displaying a screen for displaying a warning that there is an unreply mail sent by the screen information sending means. A method for controlling an information processing apparatus that stores conditions for extracting unreply mail that has not been replied to a destination address that is a mail destination,
In the information processing apparatus,
When the acquisition unit of the information processing apparatus is instructed to transmit a mail by a user operation, an acquisition step of acquiring a destination address of the transmitted mail;
Of the mail received from the destination address extracted by using the condition for extracting the stored unreply mail, the search means of the information processing apparatus stores the unreply stored in advance A search step for searching whether there is an unanswered mail that has not been replied to the destination address based on the conditions for extracting the mail;
A warning that there is an unreply mail when the notification means of the pre-information processing apparatus retrieves an unreply mail from the mail received from the destination address acquired in the acquisition step. The control method characterized by including the alerting | reporting step which alert | reports. An information processing apparatus that stores conditions for extracting unreply mail that has not been replied to a destination address that is a mail destination,
An acquisition means for acquiring a destination address of an outgoing mail when an instruction to send an email is made by a user operation;
Based on the pre-stored condition for extracting the non-reply mail among the mails received from the destination address extracted by using the stored condition for extracting the non-reply mail Search means for searching whether there is an unanswered mail not replied to the destination address,
Functioning as notification means for notifying a warning that there is an unreply mail when the search means searches for an unreply mail among the mails received from the destination address obtained by the pre-acquisition means A program readable and executable by a computer.

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