JPH04243342A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a sealed mail after transmission from being left unprocessed in a reception mail box. CONSTITUTION:A validity monitor processing section 18 detects a sealed mail not unsealed yet by a receiver side mail system 22 even when its validity expires, a sender side sealed mail processing section 8 generates revision information 10 revising the validity of the sealed mail detected or delete information 11 deleting the sealed mail information so as to revise or delete the transmission mail information 19 stored in a transmission mail box 20 of its own mail system. Then a receiver side mail system uses a receiver side sealed mail processing section 23 to revise or delete reception mail information 29 stored in the reception mail box 30 depending on the revision information or delete information sent from the sender side mail system.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION FIELD The present invention is applied to an electronic mail system.

[0002] The present invention particularly relates to an unopened mail processing method for managing sent mail whose expiration date has expired and which has not been opened by the recipient (hereinafter referred to as "unopened mail").

0003

[Prior Art] In conventional e-mail systems, once an e-mail is sent, it is possible to determine whether the e-mail has been read by the recipient by receiving a notification that the e-mail has been read. If the recipient did not read the email even though it was stored away, the sender could not make any changes to the email.

0004

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional e-mail system described above, if the e-mail sent but has not been read by the recipient even though the expiration date has expired, the sender may As a result of not being able to make any changes to the , emails may get stuck in your inbox, or emails you send may remain unprocessed, such as being left unread because they have expired. There was a drawback that it was often overlooked.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail system that eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks and prevents unopened e-mails from being left unprocessed in a receiving mailbox after being sent.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a receiving mail system including a receiving mailbox that stores received mail information including opening information and an expiration date, a receipt notification transmitter that transmits a receipt notification, and an outgoing mailbox that stores outgoing email information, including information and expiration dates;
and a sender's mail system including a read-read notification receiver that receives a read-read notification sent from the receiver mail system and determines read information of sent mail information in the send mailbox as read. ,
The sender's mail system detects emails in the sender's mailbox that have expired and are unopened, and creates and stores unopened notification email information at regular time intervals. Creates change information for changing the expiration date or deletion information for deleting the email for the unopened email detected by the expiration date monitoring processor and sends it to the receiving mail system. and a sender's unopened mail processing unit that changes or deletes sent mail information in the sender's mailbox, and the receiver's mail system receives change information or deletion information from the sender's mail system, and The present invention is characterized in that it includes a receiving side unopened mail processing unit that changes or deletes received mail information in a received mailbox.

[0007]

[Operation] In the sender's mail system, the expiration date monitoring processing section detects unopened and expired e-mails regarding outgoing mail information in the outgoing mailbox at regular time intervals. The sender's unopened mail processing unit then sends a notification inquiry to the terminal that inputted the detected unopened mail, for example, and provides change information to change the expiration date of the unopened mail or whether to delete the unopened mail. Generates and sends information to the receiving mail system, as well as changing or deleting outgoing mail information in the outgoing mailbox. On the other hand, in the receiving side mail system, the receiving side unopened mail processing section changes or deletes the received mail information in the receiving mailbox based on the change information or deletion information received from the sending side mail system.

[0008] Therefore, unopened mail after being sent is no longer left unprocessed in the receiving mailbox.

[0009]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[0011] In this embodiment, the received mail information includes a mail identifier that uniquely identifies the mail, opening information that indicates whether the received mail has been read, expiration date that indicates how long the received mail is valid, A receiving mailbox 30 that stores received mail information 29 consisting of the destination to which the mail was sent, the subject of the mail, and the mail body which is the document of the main body of the mail, and the mail identifier of the received mail when the received mail is read. an opening notification 27 consisting of the opening notification 27, and an opening notification transmitting unit 28 that transmits the opening notification 27.
and a receiving side mail system 22 including a mail identifier to uniquely identify the mail as the mail information to be sent, opening information indicating whether the sent mail has been read, and validity indicating how long the sent mail is valid. deadline,
Sent email information 1 consisting of the recipient of the email, the subject of the email, and the email body, which is the main document of the email.
9, and an open notification sending unit 28 of the receiving mail system 22 when the sent mail is read out by the receiving mail system 22.
An e-mail system comprising a sender's mail system 7 including a read-read notification receiving section 21 that receives a read-open notification 27 sent from a sender and determines that the read information of the sent mail information 19 in the send mail box 20 has been opened. In,

[0012] A feature of the present invention is that the sending mail system 7 sends unopened and expired mail in the sending mail information 19 in the sending mailbox 20 at regular intervals. An expiration date monitoring processing unit 18 that detects and creates and stores unopened notification email information 17 consisting of an email identifier, destination, subject, and expiration date.
Then, for the unopened mail detected by the expiration date monitoring processing unit 18, change information 10 for changing the expiration date or deletion information 11 for determining whether to delete the email is created and sent to the receiving side mail system 22, and also transmitted. The receiving mail system 22 includes a sender's unopened mail processing unit 8 that changes or deletes the sent mail information 19 in the mailbox 20, and the receiver's mail system 22 receives change information 10 or deletion information 11 from the sender's mail system 7. It also includes a receiving side unopened mail processing unit 23 that changes or deletes received mail information 29 in the received mailbox 30.

[0013]The sending side unopened mail processing section 8 then
Email confirmation 1 inquires from the terminal 5 whether or not there is an unopened email, activates the email command 6 and requests processing to the sender's unopened email processing unit 8, and confirms that the unopened email exists on the terminal 5. Notification and Inquiry 2, which notifies the user of the email and inquires whether to change the expiration date or delete the email;
Change request 3 consisting of a new expiration date as information for changing the expiration date of unopened emails input by the sender who received the notification and inquiry 2, or deletion as information on whether to delete the unopened email. Unopened email notification processing unit 9 receives request 4 and email confirmation 1, queries expiration date monitoring processing unit 18 to obtain unopened email notification information 17, and performs notification and inquiry 2 based on the unopened email notification information 17.
Then, upon receiving the change request 3, change information 10 consisting of an email identifier and a new expiration date, or upon receiving a deletion request 4, generate deletion information 1 consisting of an email identifier and a deletion request.
1, a change information creation unit 12 that creates the change information creation unit 1;
a change request unit 13 that receives change information from 2 and requests a change; a deletion request unit 15 that receives deletion information 11 from the deletion information creation unit 12 and requests deletion; and a change request unit 13.
A change processing unit 14 receives a change request from the sender mailbox 20 and performs processing to rewrite the expiration date of the sender mail information 19 in the sender mailbox 20, and a change processing unit 14 receives a deletion request from the deletion request unit 15 and performs processing to rewrite the expiration date of the sender mail information 19 in the sender mailbox 20.
a deletion processing unit 16 that performs a process of deleting the

The receiving side unopened mail processing unit 23 includes a request receiving unit 24 which receives change information from the change requesting unit 13 and deletion information from the deletion requesting unit 15 of the sending side mail system and passes it to the processing unit. It includes a change processing section 25 and a deletion processing section 26 which respectively receive change information 10 and deletion information from 24 and change and delete received mail information 29 in a reception mailbox 30, respectively.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.
This will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 2, the expiration date monitoring processing unit 1
8 is the sending mailbox open step 41
, sent mail information investigation step 42 , sent mail information expiration date determination step 43 , sent mail opening determination step 44 , and unopened mail notification information creation step 45
and a send mailbox close step 46.

Referring to FIG. 3, the processing of the unopened mail processing section 8 on the sending side includes a mail confirmation receiving step 51, which is an inquiry as to whether or not there is an unopened mail, and an unopened mail notification from the expiration date monitoring processing section. Information receiving step 52, unopened email notification and inquiry terminal display step 53, change request or deletion request acquisition step 54, change information or deletion information creation step 55, sender email of change request or deletion request From the sending to the system step 56, the sending mailbox opening step 57, the deletion request determining step 58, the sending mail information deletion step 59, the sending mail information expiration date changing step 60, and the sending mailbox closing step 61. Become.

Referring to FIG. 4, the processing of the unopened mail processing unit 23 on the receiving side includes a change request or deletion request receiving step 71, a receiving mailbox opening step 72, a deletion request determining step 73, and receiving mail information Deleting step 74, changing expiration date in received mail information step 75, and closing received mail box step 7
It consists of 6.

Next, the operation of the unopened mail processing system of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained.

In the receiving mail system 22, when the received mail is opened by the recipient, the opening information in the received mail information 29 is marked as "opened", and the opening notification transmitting section 28 sends a notification in the transmitting mail system 7. A notification 27 consisting of an email identifier is sent to the notification receiving unit 21 of the email address. The opening notification receiving unit 21 that has received the notification marks the opening information of the sent mail information 19 in the sending mailbox 20 that matches the mail identifier of the handed opening notification 27 as opened.

On the other hand, the expiration date monitoring processing unit 18 opens the sending mailbox 20 at regular intervals (
Step 41) Check the expiration date and opening information of the internal sent email information 19 (Step 42), and find that there is an unopened email that has expired and has not been opened.
(Steps 43 and 44) Then, unopened email notification information 17 consisting of the email identifier, destination, subject, and expiration date is created for the email (Step 45).
, closes the sending mailbox 20 (step 46).

Further, when the mail sender performs mail confirmation 1 from the terminal 5, which is an inquiry as to whether there is an unopened mail, the mail command is activated and the unopened mail in the sender's unopened mail processing section 8 is checked. Processing moves to the notification processing section 9 (step 51). The unopened email notification processing unit 9
An inquiry is made to the expiration date monitoring processing section 18, and if there is unopened mail notification information 17, it is received, and the unopened mail notification information 17 is deleted from the expiration date monitoring processing section 18 (step 52).

Based on the received unopened email notification information 17, the unopened email notification processing unit 9 notifies the terminal that there is an unopened email, and determines whether to delete the email or rewrite the expiration date. Notification and Inquiry 2 is performed to inquire about the new expiration date (Step 53). The change information creation unit 12 creates change information 10 consisting of an email identifier and a new expiration date from the change request 3 input from the terminal (steps 54 and 55).
, and passes it to the change request section 13.

The change request unit 13 passes the change information 10 to the request receiving unit 24 and the change processing unit 14 in the receiving side unopened mail processing unit 23 of the receiving side mail system 22 to request a change (step 56). . Alternatively, the change information creation unit 12 creates deletion information 11 consisting of an email identifier and a deletion request from the deletion request 4 input from the terminal (
Step 54, Step 55), Delete request part 1
Pass it to 5.

The deletion request section 15 passes the deletion information 11 to the request receiving section 24 and the deletion processing section 16 in the receiving side unopened mail processing section 23 of the receiving side mail system 22 to request deletion (step 56). . The change information 10 has been received from the change request unit 13 (step 71) The request receiving unit 24 passes the change information 10 to the change processing unit 25 to issue a change request.

The request receiving section 24 receives the deletion information 11 from the deletion request section 15 (step 71), and passes the deletion information 11 to the deletion processing section 26 to issue a deletion request. The change processing section 25 and the deletion processing section 26 investigate the receiving mailbox 30 based on the change information 10 or deletion information 11 that has been passed, and delete the change information 10 or deletion information 11.
Searching for received mail information 20 that matches the mail identifier of (Steps 72 to 76).

On the other hand, since the sending mailbox 20 also needs to be changed in the same way, the change processing section 14 and the deletion processing section 16 use the passed change information 10 or deletion information 11.
The sending mailbox 20 is investigated based on the change information 1.
0 or matching the mail identifier of the deletion information 11, the modification processing unit 14 rewrites the expiration date of the transmission mail information 19 to the new validity period of the modification information 10, and the deletion processing unit 16 Delete mail information 19 (steps 57 to 61).

[0028]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, when a user sends an e-mail, if the recipient has not read the e-mail even though the expiration date has passed, the e-mail is unopened. Notify the sender that the email exists,
The effect is to inquire whether to delete the email or change the expiration date, and to prevent unopened emails from being left unprocessed in the recipient's mailbox after being sent. be.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing of the expiration date monitoring processing unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing of the unopened mail processing unit on the sending side in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing of the unopened mail processing unit on the receiving side in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Email confirmation 2 Notification and inquiry 3 Change request 4 Deletion request 5 Terminal 6 Email command 7 Sending side email system 8 Sending side unopened email processing unit 9 Unopened email notification processing unit 10 Change information 11 Deletion information 12 Change information creation unit 13 Change request section 14 Change processing section 15 Deletion request section 16 Deletion processing section 17 Unopened mail notification information 18 Expiration date monitoring processing section 19 Sent mail information 20 Outgoing mail box 21 Open notification receiving section 22 Receiving side mail system 23 Receiving side unopened Mail processing unit 24 Request receiving unit 25 Change processing unit 26 Deletion processing unit 27 Open notification 28 Open notification transmission unit 29 Received email information 30 Received mailbox

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A receiving mail system including a receiving mailbox that stores received mail information including read information and an expiration date, a read notification sending unit that sends a read notification, and a sent email including the read information and expiration date. A sender's mail including a sender's mailbox that stores information, and an opener's notification receiver that receives the reader's notification sent from the receiver's mail system and determines that the sender's email information in the sender's mailbox has been opened. In the e-mail system, the sender's mail system detects unopened and expired e-mails regarding outgoing mail information in the outgoing mailbox at regular time intervals, and detects unopened e-mails. An expiration date monitoring processing unit that creates and saves notification email information, and change information to change the expiration date or deletion information to delete the email for unopened emails detected in this expiration date monitoring processing unit. a sender's unopened mail processing unit that creates and sends to the receiver's mail system and changes or deletes sent mail information in the sender's mailbox, and the receiver's mail system receives information from the sender's mail system. An e-mail system comprising: a receiver-side unopened mail processing unit that receives change information or deletion information and changes or deletes received mail information in the received mailbox.