JPH06125358A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To send a content of an unreceived mail automatically with an information transmission means in place of an electronic mail to a destination of an unreceived mail not received for a long time. CONSTITUTION:When a mail generated by a mail generating section 11 is given to a mail transmission section 12, the mail is reserved in a transmission mail box 31 for each destination. Then the mail is sent by the mail transmission section 12 and stored in a reception mail box 32 and when the mail is received by a mail reception section 21 by the operation of a destination user, the mail status of the destination mail in the box 31 is revised from 'delivered' into 'received' in response to the reception notice from a reception notice section 22. Furthermore, an unreception mail detection section 34 monitors the inside of the transmission mail box 31 and even when number of defined days from the transmission date is exceeded and when the mail not received by the destination is detected, a mail transmission substitute processing section 35 applies mail transmission substitute processing specific to the destination described in an environment setting database 36.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system capable of exchanging electronic mails, and particularly to processing unreceived mails when there are unreceived mails that will not be processed (read) at the destination forever. Regarding the scheme.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various electronic mail systems have been constructed in which a plurality of information processing devices are connected to a network to exchange messages called electronic mail. In this type of e-mail system, when an e-mail is sent to the destination registered in the e-mail with the attribute of reception report request, the sender (sender) determines whether the e-mail was received at the destination. It is general to confirm the reception status of whether (read or not) by some means.

However, there are electronic mails that are not received forever for some reason. in this case,
The sender can send the contents that he tried to convey by e-mail to
Contact by phone or fax (FA
I sent it again in X).

[0004]

As described above, conventionally, the reception status of the electronic mail transmitted by the electronic mail system is manually confirmed, and the electronic mail that is not received (unread) is never received (unread). If there is a received mail), there was a problem that the contents that were attempted to be transmitted by the mail had to be manually contacted by telephone or retransmitted by facsimile (FAX). .

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to automatically detect an unreceived mail that is not processed at a destination and use an information transmission means instead of an electronic mail to the destination. It is to provide an electronic mail system that can automatically transmit the contents of unreceived mail.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a mail transmitting means, a first storing means (reception mailbox) for storing the electronic mail transmitted from the mail transmitting means, and the first storing. A mail receiving means for extracting and receiving an electronic mail in accordance with a user operation from the means, and a second storing means (sending mailbox) for storing the electronic mail transmitted by the mail transmitting means with the destination thereof. When an electronic mail is received by the mail receiving means, a reception notification means for issuing a reception notification to that effect, and a corresponding destination of the corresponding electronic mail in the second storage means according to the reception notification Then, the inside of the second storage means and the mail status setting means for setting the specific mail status information indicating “received” are regularly monitored, and a predetermined fixed period of time has passed. Also, the unreceived mail detection means for detecting an electronic mail to an address to which the above specific mail status information is not set as an unreceived mail, and the contents of this unreceived mail are transferred to the destination by an information transfer means instead of the electronic mail. It is characterized in that it is provided with a mail transmission alternative processing means for.

[0007]

In the above structure, all the electronic mails sent by the mail sending means are stored in the second storing means (sending mail box) with their destinations attached. When the mail sending means performs mail sending, the sent mail is stored in an area unique to the destination in the first storage means (reception mailbox). Further, when the user performs a receiving operation, the mail receiving means takes out the electronic mail addressed to the user from the receiving mailbox and receives the electronic mail. Then, the reception notification means issues a reception notification to that effect.

The mail status setting means discriminates the electronic mail received by the mail receiving means and its destination from the reception notification from the reception notifying means, and associates them with the corresponding destination of the corresponding electronic mail in the transmission mailbox. Then, the specific mail status information indicating “received” is set.

The unreceived mail detecting means regularly monitors the inside of the outgoing mail box, and sends an electronic mail to a destination to which specific mail status information indicating "received" is not set even after a lapse of a predetermined fixed period. Detect mail as unreceived mail. As described above, in the above configuration, it is possible to automatically detect a mail (unreceived mail) that is never received due to some reason.

Now, when the unreceived mail detecting means detects the unreceived mail, the mail transmission alternative processing means is activated and the contents of the unreceived mail are displayed by FAX (facsimile).
An alternative process for transmitting to the destination is performed by an information transmitting means instead of the electronic mail such as. As a result, the content of the unreceived mail is automatically transmitted to the destination by means other than the electronic mail.

[0011]

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 and 2 are terminals, 3 is a host computer, and 4 is a FAX (facsimile) connected to the host computer 3. The terminals 1 and 2 and a group of other terminals (or computers) (not shown) are connected via a host computer 3 by, for example, a line so that electronic mails can be exchanged with each other.

The terminal 1 has a mail creating unit 11 and a mail sending unit 12. The mail creation unit 11 manages the creation of an electronic mail (sent mail) under user operation. The mail transmission unit 12 controls transmission (delivery) of the transmission mail created by the mail creation unit 11.

The terminal 2 has a mail receiving section 21 and a reception notifying section 22. The mail receiving unit 21 is responsible for receiving a received mail stored in a received mail box 32, which will be described later, under a user operation. The reception notification unit 22 notifies the host computer 3 that the mail has been received by the mail reception unit 21.

The terminal 1 is also provided with the same configurations as the mail receiving unit 21 and the reception notifying unit 22 of the terminal 2, but they are omitted in FIG. The terminal 2 is also provided with the same configurations as the mail creating unit 11 and the reception notifying unit 22 of the terminal 1, but they are omitted in FIG.

The host computer 3 is the transmission mailbox 3
1, a received mailbox 32, and a mail status update unit 3
3, an unreceived mail detection unit 34, a mail transmission alternative processing unit 35, an environment setting database 36, and an environment setting unit 3
7 and a FAX transmission unit 38.

The send mail box 31 is created by the mail creating unit 11 in the terminal 1 (or the mail creating unit in another terminal) and is stored in the corresponding mail sending unit 12 (or the mail sending unit in another terminal). It is used to save the delivered email (outgoing email).

In the transmission mail box 31, as shown in FIG. 2, in addition to the electronic mail, the transmission date and destination of the same mail (the user's address) and the status of the same mail are also stored. The number of destinations is not limited to one for one mail, and in this case, the mail status is stored for each destination. This mail status includes “Sent”, “Distributed”, “Received”, “FAX transmission, etc.” “Sent” indicates that the transmission of the corresponding mail has started, and “Distributed” Is delivered by the corresponding email (incoming mailbox 3
(Stored in 2). Further, “received” indicates that the corresponding mail has been delivered and then received at the destination, and “FAX transmission” indicates that the corresponding mail is subjected to FAX (facsimile) transmission processing by the FAX transmission unit 38. Indicates that.

The received mail box 32 receives an electronic mail sent from the mail sending unit 12 in the terminal 1 (and the mail sending unit in another terminal) and saves it as a received mail in an area specific to the destination. Used to do.

The mail status updating unit 33 sends mail by the mail sending unit 12 in the terminal 1 (and the mail sending unit in other terminals), the reception notification unit 22 in the terminal 2 (and the reception notification in other terminals). Section), and the mail transmission alternative processing by the mail transmission alternative processing section 35,
The mail status of the corresponding destination of the corresponding mail in the transmission mail box 31 is updated.

The unreceived mail detecting section 34 regularly monitors the mail status in the outgoing mail box 31, and if there is a mail that is not received at the destination even after the number of days defined in advance from the sending date, Detect mail for the recipient as unreceived mail.

In response to the detection of the unreceived mail by the unreceived mail detection unit 34, the mail transmission alternative processing unit 35 causes the environment setting database 36 to perform a process for the unreceived mail (information transmission process in place of the electronic mail to the destination). This is performed according to the e-mail alternative process information that will be described later and is set.

The environment setting database 36 is used to store definition information of various operating environments required for processing (alternative processing) for unreceived mail by the mail transmission alternative processing section 35. The environment setting database 36 is also used to store the number of days that is the reference for detecting unreceived mail by the unreceived mail detection unit 34.

The operating environment definition information stored in the environment setting database 36 is, as shown in FIG. 3, the address of a user who can be the destination of an electronic mail (e-mail address).
And information indicating an alternative process to be performed by the mail transmission alternative processing unit 35 (email alternative process information) when an email addressed to the user is detected as an unreceived email, and a destination in the alternative process indicated by the information. Including information and. As alternative processing methods indicated by the electronic mail alternative processing information, there are a method of transmitting the mail content by FAX4 (FAX transmission), a method of printing the mail content by mail and transmitting it by mail (print / mail), as well as unreceived mail. Instead of transmitting the contents to the destination, there is a method of notifying the sender by e-mail that there is unreceived mail (e-mail notification). Further, the destination information in the alternative process is a FAX number in the case of FAX transmission, and an address in the case of printing / postal transmission.
The environment setting unit 37 controls the definition information of various operating environments in the environment setting database 36.

When the mail transmission alternative processing unit 35 determines the alternative processing by FAX transmission, the FAX transmission unit 38 requests the contents of the corresponding unreceived mail to be faxed by the FAX 4 in response to a request from the processing unit 35. Send. Next, the operation of the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, when a user of an electronic mail creates an electronic mail using the mail creating unit 11 of the terminal 1 and performs an operation for sending a mail, the electronic mail is delivered to the mail sending unit 12. At the same time, the electronic mail is stored in the transmission mail box 31 in the host computer 3. At this time, the transmission date, the destination (the user's e-mail address), and the e-mail status indicating “sent” are stored in the e-mail box 31 corresponding to the e-mail. If there are multiple destinations, "sent" for each destination
Is added to the email status.

When the e-mail to be sent is delivered from the e-mail creating section 11, the e-mail sending section 12 sends the e-mail. This electronic mail is stored (delivered) as a received mail in an area specific to (the user of) the received mail box 32 provided in the host computer 3 according to the destination.

When the mail is sent to the receiving mailbox 32 by the mail sending by the mail sending unit 12, the mail status updating unit 33 displays the mail status for each destination in the sending mail box 31 for the corresponding mail. Update from "Sent" to "Distributed".

When the user of the destination operates the terminal 2 to read the electronic mail delivered to the received mail box 32, the mail receiving unit 21 in the terminal 2 sends the mail to the user. Read (receive) the e-mail from the received mail box 32. Then, the reception notification unit 22 issues a reception notification indicating that the electronic mail addressed to the user has been received (read).

The reception notification from the reception notification unit 22 is transmitted to the mail status update unit 33 in the host computer 3. Upon receiving the reception notification from the reception notification unit 22, the mail status update unit 33 changes the mail status of the corresponding destination in the transmission mailbox 31 for the electronic mail indicated by the reception notification from “delivered” to “received”. To update. Therefore, if there is a user who does not perform the receiving operation, the mail status in the transmission mailbox 31 for the electronic mail addressed to the user remains "delivered".

FIG. 2A shows an electronic mail MA whose destinations (electronic mail addresses thereof) are users # 1, # 2 and # 3.
The emails addressed to user # 1 and # 3 of IL0001 and the destination (the email address thereof) are user # 4.
# 5 user # of email MAIL0002
Only the e-mail addressed to No. 4 is the mail receiving unit 21 in the terminal 2.
It shows a state of the transmission mailbox 31 immediately after being received by (or a mail receiving unit in another terminal) and a mail status updating operation is performed by the mail status updating unit 33 according to the corresponding reception notification. . As is clear, the emails MAIL0 addressed to the users # 1 and # 3
MAIL to 001 and user # 4 MAIL0002
Only the e-mail status of “mail received” is “received”, and the e-mails MAIL0001 to user # 2 and MAIL0002 to user # 5 that have not been received by the user are still “delivered”. is there.

On the other hand, the unreceived mail detection unit 34 in the host computer 3 monitors the inside of the transmitted mail box 31 periodically (eg, once a day) asynchronously with the above operation, and monitors the environment. For the e-mails that have passed the reference number of days (the number of unreceived mail days) set in the setting database 36 from the transmission date, the mail status is checked for each destination. At this time, if there is a destination whose mail status is not “received” yet, the unreceived mail detection unit 34 detects an electronic mail to the destination as an unreceived mail.
Therefore, in the example of the transmission mailbox 31 of FIG. 2A, the email MAI whose transmission date is October 1, 1992 is
L0001 and the email MAI0002 of which the transmission date was October 2, 1992, the former email MAI
If only L0001 has passed the number of unreceived mail days, of the destinations of user # 1, # 2, and # 3,
The electronic mail MAIL0001 addressed to user # 2 is detected as an unreceived mail.

The unreceived mail detection unit 34 uses, for example, use.
When the email MAIL0001 addressed to r # 2 is detected as an unreceived email, the email MAIL0001
And the destination information user # 2 by mail transmission alternative processing unit 35
To the user # 2 and send an email to MAIL00
Request processing (alternative processing) instead of 01.

The mail transmission alternative processing unit 35 refers to the environment setting database 36 in response to the alternative processing request from the unreceived mail detection unit 34, and the destination (the electronic mail address) passed from the unreceived mail detection unit 34. The alternative process information and destination information defined in user # 2 are extracted. In the example of the environment setting database 36 shown in FIG. 3, the alternative process information defined in the user # 2 is FAX transmission, and the destination information paired with the same information is the FAX number.

When the alternative processing information extracted from the environment setting database 36 is FAX transmission, the mail transmission alternative processing unit 35 sends the e-mail (MAIL0001 in this case) passed from the unreceived mail detection unit 34 and the environment setting. The FAX number extracted from the database 36 is passed to the FAX transmission unit 38 to request FAX transmission. At the same time, the email transmission alternative processing unit 35 determines that the email MA addressed to the user # 2.
With respect to IL0001, the mail status update unit 33 is notified that a substitute process by FAX transmission will be performed.

Upon receiving the notification from the mail transmission alternative processing unit 35, the mail status updating unit 33 receives the notification from the corresponding destination (here, the destination user # 2 of MAIL0001) of the corresponding electronic mail in the transmission mailbox 31. 2 is updated from “delivered” shown in FIG. 2A to “FAX transmission” as shown in FIG. 2B.

On the other hand, when the FAX transmission unit 38 receives the FAX transmission request from the mail transmission alternative processing unit 35, the FAX transmission unit 38 converts the contents of the electronic mail MAIL0001 passed from the same processing unit 35 into image information and performs the same processing. F passed from part 35
FAX transmission to the destination indicated by the AX number is performed using FAX4. As a result, the contents of the electronic mail MAIL0001 addressed to user # 2, which has not been received by user # 2, are used by FAX4, which is another information transmission means.
It is automatically sent to r # 2.

If the alternative processing information in the environment setting database 36 specifies printing and mail instead of FAX transmission, the mail transmission alternative processing unit 35 requests the print processing unit (not shown) for the printing process. Then, the address indicated by the destination information paired with the alternative processing information is printed in the address column of the mail, and the contents of the electronic mail that is the object of the alternative processing is printed as the mailing content to complete the mail. . By mailing this mail, the content of the unreceived mail can be sent to the destination user by means other than the electronic mail and FAX transmission. Further, when the email notification is designated by the above-mentioned alternative processing information, the email transmission alternative processing unit 3
Reference numeral 5 requests the mail creating unit similar to the mail creating unit 11 to create an e-mail for notifying the sender that there is an unreceived mail, and the mail sending unit similar to the mail sending unit 12 , Send to the sender.

In the above embodiment, the mail status information is set for each destination in the transmission mail box 31, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the reception notification is issued from the reception notification unit 22 without the mail status information, the information of the corresponding destination of the corresponding electronic mail is deleted from the transmission mailbox 31, so that the transmission mailbox 31 can be stored. Only the information of the electronic mail that has not been received may be left.
In this case, the unreceived mail detection unit 34 periodically monitors the inside of the sent mailbox 31 and, if there is an e-mail whose reference number of days (the number of unreceived mail days) has passed since the sending date, adds it to the mail. It is only necessary to detect an email addressed to the specified destination as an unreceived email.

[0040]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
All e-mails sent by the mail sending means are given a destination and a predetermined storage means (sending mailbox)
When the e-mail is received at the destination of the e-mail stored in the accumulating means, a reception notification to that effect is issued, and in accordance with the reception notification, the e-mail is stored in the accumulating means. While the specific mail status information indicating "received" is set corresponding to the destination, the inside of the accumulating means is regularly monitored, so that a predetermined period of time elapses. Since the configuration is such that the electronic mail to the destination to which the specific mail status information indicating "received" is not set is detected, it is possible to automatically detect the unreceived mail that is not processed at the destination forever. Moreover, the content of the detected unreceived mail can be sent to a FAX (facsimile) or the like.
Since the alternative process for transmitting to the destination is performed by the information transmitting means instead of the electronic mail, if the recipient of the electronic mail is a user who is registered but does not use much, or somehow. Even if the e-mail cannot be received due to the reason, the content intended to be transmitted by the e-mail can be surely transmitted to the other party without human intervention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of a transmission mail box 31 in FIG. 1 before and after a substitute process by FAX transmission.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of an environment setting database 36 in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 ... Terminal, 3 ... Host computer, 4 ... FAX, 11 ...
E-mail creating unit, 12 ... E-mail sending unit, 21 ... E-mail receiving unit, 22 ... Reception notifying unit, 31 ... Outgoing mail box, 3
2 ... Received mailbox, 33 ... Email status update unit, 3
4 ... Unreceived mail detection unit, 35 ... Mail transmission alternative processing unit, 36 ... Environment setting database, 37 ... Environment setting unit,
38 ... FAX transmission section.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mail transmitting means for transmitting an electronic mail, a first storing means for storing the electronic mail transmitted from the mail transmitting means, and an electronic mail from the first storing means according to a user operation. A mail receiving means for taking out and receiving, a second storing means for storing the electronic mail transmitted by the mail transmitting means with a destination thereof, and a second storing means for receiving the electronic mail by the mail receiving means. Receiving notification means for issuing a reception notification to that effect, and, in response to the reception notification from this reception notifying means, indicates "received" in association with the corresponding destination of the corresponding electronic mail in the second storage means. A mail status setting unit that sets specific mail status information, and the inside of the second storage unit are regularly monitored to monitor the specific mail even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed. An unreceived mail detecting means for detecting an electronic mail to an addressee whose status information is not set as an unreceived mail, and the contents of the unreceived mail detected by this unreceived mail detecting means by an information transmitting means instead of the electronic mail. An electronic mail system comprising: a mail transmission alternative processing means for transmitting to a destination. 2. A mail transmitting means for transmitting an electronic mail, a first storing means for storing the electronic mail transmitted from the mail transmitting means, and an electronic mail from the first storing means according to a user operation. A mail receiving means for taking out and receiving, a second storing means for storing the electronic mail transmitted by the mail transmitting means with a destination thereof, and a second storing means for receiving the electronic mail by the mail receiving means. Reception notification means for issuing a reception notification to that effect, means for deleting the information of the corresponding destination of the corresponding electronic mail in the second storage means according to the reception notification from the reception notification means, and the second An unreceived mail detection procedure that periodically monitors the storage means of the email and detects as an unreceived email an email to a destination that is not deleted even after a predetermined period of time has passed. And a mail transmission alternative processing means for transmitting the content of the unreceived mail detected by the unreceived mail detecting means to its destination by means of the information transmitting means instead of the electronic mail. E-mail system.