JPH05303532A - Acknowledgement display method of electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a sender to easily confirm whether or not a sent electronic mail is securely acknowledged at its destination in the electronic mail system which utilizes a LAN. CONSTITUTION:In the electronic mail system equipped with plural work stations 105-107, a mail server 101, etc., which are connected to the LAN, the mail server 101 is provided with a table wherein image data for display or printer output which are set by the users of the terminals are registered, and a user when using the system registers unique image data for acknowledgement in the table and an electronic mail receiver when acknowledging the document contents of a received mail displays the image data for acknowledgement on the display of the transmission-source work station together with the document contents or outputs them on a printer 104, so that the sender decides that the sent electronic mail is already acknowledged. Further, image data on a sign for acknowledgement which are inputted from handwriting input devices 110, 112, or 113 may be used as the image data for display.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an approval display method for an e-mail system in a LAN, and more particularly, an e-mail system in which a sender can easily confirm whether or not a sent e-mail is surely approved at a destination. Approval display method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional electronic mail service, a service request is processed by three phases of an outgoing call, a delivery call and a result notification call. In this outgoing call, the sender entrusts communication by requesting message delivery to a communication processing means such as a mail server, stores document contents in the mail server, and
The reception information is obtained from the mail server. Next, the documents stored in the mail server are delivered to a receiving terminal such as a workstation by a delivery call. Thus, the communication is completed when the stored document is read by the recipient by the delivery call, but the sender cannot directly confirm it, and informs the sender by the result notification call from the mail server. In addition,
As a method of transmitting the delivery call and the result notification call, there are a method of directly calling the sender and communicating, and a method of communicating at the convenience of the sender. There is also a method in which the system has an approval / non-approval flag in order to obtain approval for the document from the receiver and notifies the sender of approval / non-approval by a result notification call. However, in the case of business documents, the signature or seal of the approver may be required, so
In many cases, a document on paper is stamped or signed separately without using e-mail. The electronic mail is described, for example, in "Electronic Information and Communication Handbook, edited by Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (1988), pages 2717 to 2720".

[0003]

In the above-mentioned prior art, the electronic mail has only the function of transmitting and receiving the document, but in the actual business, when the work of approval is added to the created document. There is a need for written approval. Therefore, in order to use e-mail in actual work, an approval function that replaces the signature and the seal on the paper is required. An object of the present invention is to improve such a problem by sending each user who has a right to use e-mail to have unique image information for approval, and to incorporate the image information in the e-mail data to improve the transmission. Another object of the present invention is to provide an approval display method of an electronic mail system, which allows a sender to easily confirm whether or not the electronic mail is surely approved at the destination.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the approval display method of the electronic mail system of the present invention is L
Multiple terminals (workstations) connected to the AN,
And an electronic mail system including a communication processing unit (mail server) for controlling transmission / reception between terminals, the image data for display display or printer output set for each terminal user is registered in the mail server. If a table (user management table) is provided and unique image data is registered in the table when the user participates in the system, and the email recipient approves the document content of the received email, the document content Along with displaying unique image data on the display of the sending terminal or outputting to a printer connected to the mail server, the sender can
It is characterized by determining that the sent e-mail has been approved. Further, the image data of the approval sign input from the optical reading device (handwriting input device) is used as the display display image data.

[0005]

In the present invention, the approval image data for each user is registered in advance in the user management table of the mail server, and the mail service control unit approves the transmitted e-mail based on the password input by the approver. When the process is performed, the approval display for the sender is performed by the unique image data indicating the approver. Thereby, the approver can be clarified when the approval is displayed, and the reliability of the service is improved. Further, by inputting the image data from the optical reading device, the image data can be easily created. Also, by printing this approval image data, not only can it be confirmed on the display of the workstation, but the approval information can be documented together with the data of the mail text.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an approval display method of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a user management table according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the format of the mail information in. In FIG. 1, 101 is a mail server connected to a printer 104 that manages the sending and receiving of mails and prints out the mail contents, 105 is a workstation operated by a user A 108 and connected to a handwriting input device 112, 106 Is a workstation operated by the user B 109 and connected to the handwriting input device 110, 107 is a workstation operated by the user n 111 and connected to the handwriting input device 113, and these are LAN (not shown). It is connected to the. The mail server 101 also includes a mail service control unit 102 for controlling the operation of the system, and a disk 10 for storing mail information and a user management table.
3 is provided. In this user management table, as shown in FIG. 2, a user name 201, a password 202 set for each user, approval image data 205 for screen output and approval image data pointer 203, approval image data 206 for printer output, and The approval image data pointer 204 is stored. Further, the mail information used in this embodiment includes a mail No. as shown in FIG.
301, mail subject 302, sender name 303, recipient name (destination) 304, mail body 308, approval request flag 305 indicating approval / non-approval, approved flag 306 indicating approval / non-approval, and approver It has a password 307.

Next, an approval procedure in the electronic mail service of this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, when the users 108, 109, and 111 shown in FIG. 1 register for the electronic mail service, the electronic mail service control unit 102
Image information (image data for screen output of bitmap for graphic screen) unique to each user is created and stored in the user management table shown in FIG. As the image information, an approval sign input by the user from the handwriting input device 110, 112, 113 can be used. Also, approval image data 2
As 05 and 206, for example, an image similar to a seal stamp can be created based on the Japanese name of the user.

After that, for example, when an electronic mail is transmitted from the user A 108 to the user B 109, the user A designates from the workstation 105 whether or not the mail should be approved (in this case, the mail service control unit). 10
2 (Send email with approval request). According to the designation, the mail service control unit 102 adds necessary information such as the mail number 301, the mail sender name 302, the mail subject 303, and the mail destination 304 shown in FIG. The request flag 305 is set to “1” and stored in the area of the disk 103. Then, the electronic mail data is made accessible to the destination user B, and the information that the electronic mail has arrived is notified to the user B (mail reception). The user B receives this notification and receives and refers to the electronic mail. At this time, the mail service control unit 102 notifies whether the received mail requires approval. For example, if the e-mail requires approval, and the recipient (user B) also reads the mail body 308 and approves the content, an approval command is sent to the mail service control unit 102 (approved and returned. ). When the mail service control unit 102 receives the approval command from the user B, the approval flag 306 is set to "1", the password 307 of the recipient is written in the e-mail data, and the user A who is the sender of this mail writes it. Send it back. in this case,
Password 30 that user B stored for the return mail
If 7 and the password 202 in the user management table match, this mail is regarded as approved by the user B. Furthermore, the mail service control unit 102
When user A who received the return mail refers to it,
The approval image data 205 of the user B is displayed on the screen by the method determined by the system, or the approval image data 206 is transferred to the printer 104 and the mail is printed as the document approved by the user B (approved. Confirm that). The mail server 10
The output to the printer 104 connected to No. 1 is because a sufficiently clear image can be obtained even when the resolution of the approval sign or the like differs depending on each workstation. Thereby, the user A can confirm that the user B has approved the mail and can obtain the documented approval information.

[0009]

According to the present invention, it is possible not only to confirm that the content of the transmitted electronic mail has been approved by the receiving side, but also to clarify the approver. In addition, the approval information can be documented by displaying the approval display with unique image data. Furthermore, the image data can be input from an optical reading device, and can be easily created.

[0010]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an approval display method of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a user management table according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a format of mail information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 101 mail server 102 mail service control unit 103 disk 104 printer 105 workstation 106 workstation 107 workstation 108 user A 109 user B 110 handwriting input device 111 user n 112 handwriting input device 113 handwriting input device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An approval display method for an electronic mail system, comprising: a plurality of terminals connected to a local area network; and a communication processing means for controlling transmission / reception between the terminals, wherein the communication processing means includes: A table for registering the image data for display display set for each user is provided, and when the user participates in the system, the unique image data for display display is registered in the table so that the e-mail recipient can receive it. If the document content of the email is approved, unique image data is displayed on the display of the transmission terminal together with the document content. 2. An approval display method for an electronic mail system comprising a plurality of terminals connected to a local area network, communication processing means for controlling transmission / reception between the terminals, and a printer connected to the communication processing means. In the communication processing means, a table for registering image data for printer output set for each user of the terminal is provided, and when the user joins the system, unique image data for printer output is registered in the table. If the e-mail recipient approves the document content of the received e-mail, a unique image data is output to the printer together with the document content. 3. An approval display method for an electronic mail system comprising a plurality of terminals connected to a local area network, an optical reading device connected to the terminals, and a communication processing means for controlling transmission / reception between the terminals. In the communication processing means, a table for registering image data for display display set for each user of the terminal is provided,
When a user participates in the system, an approval sign is input for each user from the optical character reading device, image data of the approval sign is registered in the table, and the e-mail recipient receives a document of the received mail. When the content is approved, the image data of the approval sign is displayed on the display of the transmission terminal together with the document content.