JPH04340833A - Document communication control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To transmit a mail without grasping exact address information and setting address information and to evade the increase of the cost of the hardware of document communication equipments 4-6 at the time of preparing the mail by document communication equipment side 4-6. CONSTITUTION:The document communication equipments 4-6 set the address information of the mail for making a transmitting request to a document communication center device 20 by an abbreviated address obtained by fetching and abbreviating one part of the normal address information. The document communication center device 20 receives the mail, then analysis the abbreviated address, and prepares the normal address. When the plural normal addresses are prepared, the document communication equipments 4-6 are urged to select the normal address, and the mail is transmitted by using the selected normal address.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document communication control method in a document communication center apparatus that controls the sending and receiving of mail between a plurality of document communication apparatuses.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, information processing devices not only individually process information, but also have more opportunities to mutually exchange information using communication networks. A communication network is generally comprised of a plurality of information processing devices owned by users who have joined the network, and a center computer that manages information transmitted by these plurality of information processing devices.

[0003] One example of this communication network is an email communication network that exchanges electronic messages (emails) consisting of document information indicating a document such as a letter and address information such as recipient and sender. .

[0004] In a mail communication network, an information processing device (document communication device) equipped with a document creation function and a center computer equipped with a function of identifying each document communication device that has joined the network and controlling the distribution of mail. (Document Communication Center Device) is used.

FIG. 2 shows a conceptual diagram of a mail communication network. The mail communication network 1 shown in the figure is composed of a document communication center device 2 and document communication devices 4 to 6 connected to the document communication center device 2 via a communication line 3.

[0006] The document communication center device 2 is composed of a host computer and the like that controls the distribution of mail between the respective document communication devices. The communication line 3 is a public network or the like that realizes communication between each document communication device and between each document communication device and the document communication center device 2. The document communication devices 4 to 6 are information processing devices and the like that have both a document creation function and a communication function.

[0007] In the e-mail communication network 1 having the above configuration, for example, when the document communication device 4 sends an e-mail to the document communication device 5, the document communication device 4 sends the e-mail to the document communication center device 2. .

[0008] The document communication center device 2 analyzes the address information of the received e-mail, and when it recognizes that the e-mail is to be sent to, for example, the document communication device 5, it accepts the e-mail and stores it in a predetermined storage device. Note that if the document communication device to which the document should be sent cannot be identified as a result of the analysis, the e-mail is not accepted and the document communication device 4 is notified of the error.

[0009] The e-mail stored in the document communication center device 2 is transmitted to the document communication device 5 when a request for e-mail delivery is received from the document communication device 5 or at a predetermined timing set in advance. .

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a conventional document communication center device 2. As shown in FIG. In the document communication center device 2 shown in the figure, the processor (CPU) 11 includes a communication control unit 12.
, main storage section 13, display control section 14, keyboard control sections 15, 2
The next storage unit 16 is connected.

A communication line 3 is connected to the communication control unit 12 for realizing communication with document communication devices (not shown) (document communication devices 4 to 6 shown in FIG. 2). A display section 17 configured from a display or the like is connected to the display control section 14 . A keyboard section 18 composed of kana keys, numerical keys, etc. is connected to the keyboard control section 15.

[0012] The processor 11 controls and manages each part constituting the apparatus. The communication control unit 12 is a known circuit including a modem or the like. The main memory unit 13 includes a random access memory (
RAM), etc.

The display control section 14 is a known circuit composed of a video RAM and the like that temporarily stores data to be displayed on the display section 17. The keyboard control section 15 is a known circuit that performs processing such as recognizing which key on the keyboard section 18 is pressed and generating a predetermined character code.

The secondary storage section 16 is composed of a storage device such as a hard disk or a floppy disk. The secondary storage section 16 is provided with an address information storage section 19 . This address information storage unit 19 stores address information consisting of device addresses individually assigned to document communication devices with which the document communication center device 2 can communicate and user names that identify users of each document communication device. (storage) area.

[0015] For example, when the mail communication network is constructed as an intra-company communication network, the address information includes, for example, the device address "Development 1 Department Design Section 1" and the user name "Oki".
It consists of "Taro".

The operation of the document communication center device 2 having the above configuration, ie, the conventional document communication control method, will be explained with reference to FIG. 4, taking the mail communication network 1 shown in FIG. 2 as an example. It is assumed that address information of the document communication devices 4 to 6 has already been stored in the address information storage section 19 by the operation of the keyboard section 18 by the staff member of the document communication center device 2, and furthermore, the address information of the document communication devices 4 to 6 is stored in the address information storage section 19 by the operation of the keyboard section 18 by the staff member of the document communication center device 2. Assume that an email is to be sent to the communication device 5.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a conventional document communication control method. First, when the processor 11 of the document communication center device 2 receives an e-mail transmission request and e-mail from the document communication device 4 via the communication control unit 12 (step S1), it recognizes the address information set in the e-mail.
The contents are compared with the contents of the address information storage section 19 of the secondary storage section 16 (step S2).

Thereafter, as a result of the comparison in step S2, it is determined whether matching address information exists in the address information storage section 19 (step S3). If the result of step S3 is YES, that is, if matching address information exists in the address information storage section 19, the e-mail received from the document communication device 4 is accepted, and further sent to the document communication device 5 (step S4), the process ends.

If the result of step S3 is NO, that is, the address information set in the e-mail does not match the contents of the address information storage section 19, a message indicating that the e-mail will not be accepted because the address information does not match is provided. Error processing is performed to notify the document communication device 4 of the error (step S5), and the process ends.

[0020]

[Problem to be solved by the invention] By the way, step S
One of the reasons for the NO result in step 3 is incorrect setting of address information on the email. Therefore, the user of the document communication device must know the correct address information when sending an email, and must accurately operate the keyboard section 18 etc. provided on the document communication device when setting the address information in the email. There was a problem that it would not work.

[0021] Also, the same information as the address information storage unit 19 of the document communication center device 2 is prepared in the document communication device, and when setting address information in an e-mail, desired address information is selected from a plurality of candidates. In the case of the setting method,
Since it is necessary to prepare a large-capacity storage device for storing document communication device address information, a problem arises in that the cost of hardware increases.

[0022] The present invention has been made with attention to the above points, and it is possible to send an email without having to grasp accurate address information or set address information when generating an email on the document communication device side. It is an object of the present invention to provide a document communication control method that allows the document communication device to be used without increasing the cost of the hardware of the document communication device.

[0023]

Means for Solving the Problems In the document communication control method of the present invention, a plurality of document communication devices are connected to a document communication center device, and each of the document communication devices communicates with the other document communication devices via the document communication center device. When sending an e-mail to a document communication device, when the document communication center device analyzes the address information set in the e-mail that specifies the other document communication device, the document communication center device analyzes each of the document communication devices. The document communication center device is equipped with a correspondence table that associates regular address information for identifying a document communication device with shortened address information that is shortened by extracting a part of the regular address information, and the document communication center device When the email indicating the address information as the abbreviated address information is received from a document communication device of said plurality of regular address information is notified to any one of said document communication devices, and said one of said document communication devices selects said plurality of said plurality of regular address information. It is a choice.

[0024]

[Operation] In the above method, the document communication device sets the address information of the e-mail sent to the document communication center device by using an abbreviated address obtained by extracting a part of the regular address information. When the document communication center device receives the email, it analyzes the abbreviated address and generates a regular address. If a plurality of regular addresses are generated, the document communication device is prompted to select a regular address, and the selected regular address is used to send the email.

[0025]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention is implemented in the configuration of the mail communication network 1 previously described with reference to FIG. Therefore,
A case where the present invention is applied to the mail communication network 1 shown in FIG. 2 will be explained.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a document communication center device according to the present invention. Document communication center device 2 shown in the figure
0 is different from the conventional document communication center device 2 described above in FIG. 3 in the configurations of a processor (CPU) 11 and a secondary storage section 16.

The processor 11 according to the present invention is provided with a regular address information generation means 21, an abbreviation management means 22, and an address information confirmation notification means 23. Further, the secondary storage section 16 is provided with an address information storage section 19 and an abbreviation storage section 24 .

The abbreviation storage section 24 of the secondary storage section 16 stores the correspondence between the address information (shortened address information) set in the received e-mail and the address information (regular address information) set in the e-mail sent by the processor 11. This is an area to store the abbreviation table shown.

[0029] Here, the regular address information corresponds to the device address "Development 1 Department Design 1 Section" and user name "Oki Taro" explained earlier with reference to FIG. In addition, the shortened address information is abbreviated information that leaves a part of the regular address information, so if the regular address information is "Development 1st Department Design 1st Division Taro Oki", it is "Tarou Okitaro, Development 1, Design Section 1".
This is the information. In addition, "open 1" and "set 1", which are abbreviations of the regular address, will be respectively referred to as abbreviations.

[0030] The regular address information generating means 21 searches the abbreviation storage section 24 and obtains regular address information corresponding to the shortened address information of the received mail. The abbreviation management means 22 controls updating, deletion, etc. of the contents of the abbreviation storage section 24.

When the regular address information generating means 21 generates a plurality of regular address information for one abbreviated address information, the address information confirmation notification means 23 sends a plurality of regular address information to the document communication device that sent the e-mail. This controls the selection of a regular address corresponding to the document communication device to which the e-mail is to be sent.

The document communication control method of the present invention will now be explained with reference to FIG. 5 and subsequent figures. FIG. 5 is a conceptual explanatory diagram of the method of the present invention. As shown in the figure, abbreviation storage section 2
4 is composed of an abbreviation item 24a, an address item 24b, and a hierarchy item 24c.

[0033] The abbreviation item 24a contains the abbreviations (“Open 1”, “Setting 1”) of the short address information set in the received e-mail.
etc.) are stored. The address item 24b stores an address corresponding to the abbreviation (“Development Department 1”, “Design Department 1”, etc.). In the hierarchy item 24c, in the case of an address indicating a division, the hierarchy is "1", and in the case of an address indicating a division, the hierarchy is "2".
is stored.

The address information storage section 19 stores destinations to which the document communication center device 20 sends e-mails, ie, regular address information. Now, when the processor 11 receives an e-mail in which the shortened address information SAD ("Open 1 Set 1 Oki Taro") is set, the regular address information generation means 21 is activated. The regular address information generation means 21 searches the abbreviation storage unit 24 for items corresponding to the abbreviations "open 1" and "set 1" of the shortened address information SAD. In this case, the item KA1 of the abbreviation storage section 24 is first extracted, the address "Development Department 1" and the layer "1" are grasped,
It is stored on the main storage unit 13 as the contents of layer 1 of the regular address information FAD.

Furthermore, item KA2 of the abbreviation storage section 24 is extracted, and the address "Design Section 1" and hierarchy "2" are grasped.
It is stored on the main storage unit 13 as the contents of layer 2 of the regular address information FAD. After completing the search in the abbreviation storage section 24, the regular address information generation means 21 sets the name of the shortened address information in the regular address information FAD, and searches the address information storage section 19. As a result, it is recognized that the item KB1 in the address information storage section 19 matches the regular address information FAD. When the regular address information generation means 21 outputs a matching search result, the processor 11 accepts the email, and further converts the address information (shortened address information SAD) set in the email to the regular address information FAD.
and then send the email.

Next, the contents of the shortened address information SAD are as follows:
In the case of "Set 1 Oki Taro", that is, when there is only one abbreviation, the regular address information generation means 21 extracts the items KB1 and KB3 from the address information storage section 19. When the regular address information generating means 21 extracts a plurality of items, the regular address information generating means 21 activates the address information confirmation notification means 23.

[0037] The address information confirmation notification means 23 notifies the document communication device that sent the mail of the extraction result of the regular address information generation means 21 and controls the selection. The user of the document communication device who receives this notification selects an address (regular address information) indicating the document communication device to which the email is to be sent.

When the address information confirmation notification means 23 receives the selection result, the processor 11 accepts the e-mail and further changes the address information set in the e-mail (abbreviated address information SAD) to the selected regular address information FAD. and send an email.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the document communication control method of the present invention. First, the processor 11 of the document communication center device 2 controls the document communication device 4 via the communication control unit 12.
When the e-mail is received along with a request to send an e-mail from (step S11), the regular address information generation means 21 is activated, and a regular address information generation process for converting the shortened address information into regular address information is executed (step S12).

After that, as a result of the processing in step S12, it is determined whether only one regular address information FAD is generated (
Unique decision) is made (step S13). If the result of step S13 is unique, the processor 11 accepts the email received from the document communication device 4, changes the address information of the email from the abbreviated address information SAD to the regular address information FAD, and sends the email to the document communication device 5. (step S15), and the process ends.

[0041] If the result of step S13 is that a plurality of pieces of regular address information FAD are generated, the address information confirmation notification means 23 is activated, and the address information confirmation message is sent to the document communication device 4 to prompt the document communication device 4 to select the regular address information. A notification is output (step S14). As a result, when the regular address information is selected, step S15 is executed.

[0042] If the result of step S13 is not applicable, that is, if the regular address information FAD could not be generated,
An error process is executed to notify the document communication device 4 that the email is rejected because the address information is unknown (step S16), and the process ends.

As described above, in the present invention, when the document communication center device 20 sends an e-mail, the document communication device side A mail is generated in the document communication center device 20, and official address information (regular address information) is generated in the document communication center device 20. If a plurality of pieces of regular address information are generated, the document terminal device that sent the email is prompted to select the regular address information, and the document communication center device 20 determines the regular address information to be set in the email.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Although the content of address information has been explained using a department of a company as an example, it can also be applied to general addresses, etc. Further, although the name was not abbreviated in the embodiment, the name may also be abbreviated. In this case, the abbreviation storage section 24 will be provided with an item regarding the name.

[0045]

Effects of the Invention On the document communication device side, when generating a mail to be sent, the input content of address information to be set is reduced, so that the occurrence of input errors can be reduced. In addition, since the desired destination can be selected from multiple address information candidates without preparing a list of address information on the document communication device side, an increase in the cost of the hardware of the document communication device can be avoided. E-mail can be sent to a desired document communication device without knowing exact address information.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a document communication center device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a mail communication network.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional document communication center device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a conventional document communication control method.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual explanatory diagram of the method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the document communication control method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

19 Address information storage section 21 Regular address information generation unit 22 Abbreviation management means 23 Address information confirmation notification means 24 Abbreviation storage section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When a plurality of document communication devices are connected to a document communication center device and each of the document communication devices sends an email to the other document communication device via the document communication center device, the email In the case where the document communication center device analyzes the address information that identifies the other document communication device set to , the document communication center device analyzes regular address information for identifying each document communication device; The document communication center device includes a correspondence table in which a part of the regular address information is extracted and associated with abbreviated address information, and the document communication center device converts the address information from any of the document communication devices into the abbreviated address information. If the e-mail shown in is received and a plurality of pieces of regular address information are extracted as a result of referring to the correspondence table using the shortened address, the extracted pieces of regular address information are added to one of the documents. A document communication control method, characterized in that a communication device is notified, and one of the document communication devices selects the plurality of the extraction results.