JPH0520938B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a related mail management method in an electronic mail system, and particularly relates to a related mail management method suitable for systematically storing a group of related mail. .

[Conventional technology]

In conventional e-mail systems, when composing an e-mail, the sender sets an e-mail name for each e-mail and sends the e-mail, regardless of whether the e-mail is related or not. All they had to do was manage their emails independently.

Please note that the items to be specified when sending an email, including the email name, can be specified, for example, by MHS (CCITTSG).
, 1984). 411 (Message Transfer Layer).

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the above-mentioned conventional technology, no consideration is given to the handling of related e-mails, and it is difficult for the person sending the related e-mails as well as the user who wants to refer to a group of related e-mails at a later date. , there was a problem that it was not possible to smoothly send related emails and refer to them all at once.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional method in an electronic mail system and to provide a related mail management method that satisfies senders and readers of related mail.

[Means for solving problems]

The above purpose is to provide a related email management table in a host computer for managing related email groups, and store a document name common to the related email groups and a serial number assigned to each email in the email group in the related email management table. This is achieved by setting and collectively managing the related email groups.

[Effect]

When a related email is generated, the user adds a common document name to the related email group and sends the email. If the host computer does not have a related email management table that corresponds to the name of the sent document,
Create a new related email management table. If there is already a related mail management table, set the serial number of the sent mail, use a combination of a common document name and serial number as the mail name of the mail, and register comments, destinations, sending dates, etc. in the table.

When referring to the related mail management table, the user specifies the document name and issues a reference request to the host computer. In response to this, the host computer reads the management information of each email associated with the serial number from the related email management table in which the document name is registered, and sends it to the user.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an e-mail system targeted by the present invention. In FIG. 1, a plurality of terminal systems 2 are connected to a host computer 1 through communication lines. Generally, the terminal system 2 includes a keyboard 21 and a display device 22. On the other hand, the host computer 1 has a center file 3. Centafile 3
consists of an outgoing mail management table 31, a related mail management table 32, and a mailbox 33. Here, the related mail management table 32 is prepared according to the present invention.

The general operation of an email system is as follows. A mail sender issues a mail sending instruction command to the host computer 1 using the keyboard 21 of the terminal system 2, and sends the mail. In addition to the email body, the outgoing email includes the email name, email type, sending date, sender's name, recipient's name, etc. When the host computer 1 receives a mail from the terminal system 2, it puts the mail into an empty area of a mail box 33 and creates an outgoing mail management table 31 for the mail. That is,
An outgoing mail management table 31 exists for each mail contained in the mailbox 33. On the other hand, the system user uses the keyboard 21 of the terminal system 2 to issue a mail reception request command at any time to check for any mail addressed to him/her. When the host computer 1 receives the mail reception request command, it searches the outgoing mail management table 31, and if the corresponding recipient name is registered, reads the corresponding mail from the mailbox 33 and sends it to the corresponding terminal system 1. . The mail is displayed on the display device 22 of the terminal system 1. When the user sees this and returns a response to the incoming mail, the host computer 1 deletes the mail in the mailbox 33 and at the same time deletes the corresponding outgoing mail management table 31.

The above is an outline of the general operation of the e-mail system. The outgoing mail management table 31 is used to manage mailboxes 3 and 30 regardless of the presence or absence of related mails.
3, so even if you try to refer to a series of related mail groups all at once, you will not be able to easily refer to the related mail groups. Therefore, in the present invention, related mail groups are collectively managed using the related mail management table 32.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the related mail management table 32. When sending a related mail group, the mail sender sends the mail using a related mail sending instruction command. At this time, the document name common to the related mail group is added to the mail and sent. The host computer 1 puts the email into the empty area of the mail box 33, and if the related email management table for the sent document name is not registered in the center file 3, the host computer 1 stores the received email as the first email in the related email group. Based on this determination, a related mail management table 32 regarding the related mail group is created.

In the document name field in the related email management table 32, the name of the document sent from the email sender is set as is. The serial number configuration information indicates the serial number configuration. For example, if the serial number consists of 3 digits,
“NNN” (N; NULL) is set. The serial number control information consists of a mail name set position address and a serial number count up value. The mail name set position address indicates the position where the determined mail name (described later) is set in the mail (for example, the beginning position or the last position of the mail), and the serial number count up value indicates the update format of the serial number (for example, +1 or +2, etc.). ) is shown. The used serial number indicates how far the serial number has been used.
If the serial number configuration information specifies that the serial number consists of, for example, 3 digits, and the serial number count up value in the serial number control information specifies “+1”, the initial value is “000”.
is set to "001" each time a related email is registered.
It is updated as “002”, etc. The serial number field consists of the e-mail name, comment, destination, and sending date, and is created every time a related e-mail is registered. The comment, destination, and sending date are set exactly as they were sent by the email sender. The mail name consists of a document name and a serial number, and is automatically determined by the host computer 1. This e-mail name consisting of the document name and serial number is set at a predetermined position (for example, at the beginning or end of the e-mail) indicated by the e-mail name set position address in the serial number control information in the sent e-mail. The mail with this mail name added is stored in the mailbox 33. As a result, the related mail group managed by the related mail management table 32 and the mail stored in the mail box 33 are associated with each other.

FIG. 3 is a processing flow of the host computer 1, particularly showing the creation/reference processing of the related mail management table 32 according to the present invention.

When the user issues a related mail transmission/reference instruction command, the host computer 1 checks whether the command is a related mail transmission instruction or a related mail reference instruction (step 101). In addition, in the related mail transmission instruction command, the document name common to the related mail group is sent as well as the mail body. Furthermore, with the related mail reference instruction command, the main text of the mail is not sent, as a matter of course, but the document names of the related mail group to be referenced are sent.

In the case of a related mail sending instruction, the host computer 1 checks whether there is a related mail management table in the center file 3 in which the name of the sent document is registered (step 102). If there is no related email management table for the document name, create a new related email management table (step
103), set the document name, serial number configuration information, and serial number control information. In addition, all used serial numbers are initially set to "0". After that, the process moves to step 104. If there is already a related mail management table for the document name, skip step 103 and proceed to step 104 immediately. In step 104, the name of the email sent is determined. The email name consists of the document name and the serial number of the related email. The document name is the document name itself set in the related email management table.
The serial number is composed of, for example, three digits, and is updated to, for example, "001", "002", etc., each time a related mail is registered, based on the serial number count-up value of the serial number control information. This determined e-mail name is determined based on the e-mail name set position address of the serial number control information.
It is set or embedded at a predetermined position in the sent mail (step 105). Next, enter the email name, comment, and
The destination, transmission date, etc. are set (step 106), and the used serial number column is updated based on the serial number count-up value of the number control information (step 107). Finally, send the email with the email name embedded to Mailbox 33.
(Step 108).

On the other hand, in the case of a related mail reference instruction, the related mail management table in which the names of sent and deleted documents are registered is read out (step 109). Next, the email name, comment, destination, sending date, etc. of the related email group registered in the read related email management table are sent to the terminal system 2 for which the reference instruction was given, and a list is displayed on the taste play device 22 (step 110).

When the user looks at this list display and selects a specific email name and instructs the host computer 1, the host computer 1 searches for the email corresponding to the email name from the mailbox 33 and sends it to the user. It is possible to do so.

Further, when receiving a mail reception request command from a user, the host computer 1 searches both the conventional outgoing mail management table 31 and the related mail management table 32. If the corresponding destination is registered in the related mail management table 32, the mail box 33 is searched for the mail corresponding to the mail name at the serial number position and sent to the user. As a result, even if a series of related emails are collectively managed in the related email management table 32, the user can obtain emails addressed to him or herself using the same procedure as before.

According to this embodiment, a series of related mail groups are managed using serial numbers, which is very effective in managing a large amount of mail generated. Furthermore, since the e-mail name is automatically set on the host computer side, the burden of key operations on the sender can be reduced, which also helps improve operability.

Further, in the above description, an outgoing email was used as an example of the email format, but the present invention can also be used in other email formats, such as when a recipient manages incoming email by number.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the document name, serial number structure, serial number control information, etc. are set for related mail groups, and the host computer automatically organizes the mail names based on these information. In addition, the user can refer to related mail groups at once by simply specifying the document name, which has the effect of improving the operability of sending and referencing related mail groups. Furthermore, since the e-mail group is managed collectively, unnecessary e-mails can be easily extracted, unnecessary e-mails can be easily deleted, and computer resources can be used effectively.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an e-mail system to which the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the format of a related mail management table used in the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a processing flow of a host computer according to the present invention. It is a diagram. 1...Host computer, 2...Terminal system, 3...Center file, 32...Related mail management table, 33...Mailbox.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Consisting of a host computer and a plurality of terminal systems connected to the host computer via communication lines, the host computer stores mail sent from a certain terminal system in a mailbox, and later sends mail to other terminal systems. In an e-mail system distributed to terminal systems, the host computer is equipped with a related mail management table that collectively manages a group of related mails that have a common document name, and the host computer is equipped with a related mail management table that collectively manages a group of related mails that have a common document name. Then, a serial number corresponding to the reception order in the relevant related mail group is assigned to the mail, management information is registered in the related mail management table as the combination of the document name and the serial number as the mail name of the mail, and the above-mentioned A related email management method characterized by adding an email name that is a combination of a document name and a serial number to an email and storing it in a mailbox. 2. When a request to refer to a group of related emails by specifying a document name is received from the terminal system, the host computer retrieves the management information of each email associated by serial number from the related email management table in which the document name is registered. The related mail management method according to claim 1, characterized in that the related mail management system reads and sends the email to the terminal system.