JPH06164638A - Electronic mail processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the transfer of the data of binary form of the image data, etc., by an electronic mail. CONSTITUTION:When a terminal 1 sends a mail, the binary data are processed to convert into a text form if an object to be transferred is the binary data of the image data, etc. Then an identifier is set in a user defining field of the mail header part to show the binary data, and an header is added to the head of the binary data converted into a text form. Then the mail is transmitted. When the mail is received, the head of the binary data of a text form is retrieved by the header when the identifier showing the binary data is set in the user defining field of the header part of the mail. Then the retrieved binary data of a text form is converted into a binary form by a mail processing part 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail processing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electronic mail is widely used as a means of transmitting information between terminals connected to each other via a network.

These electronic mails are provided by an operating system that controls the basic functions of the terminal. For example, under an operating system such as UNIX, SMTP, sendmail, mail, mail.
The electronic mail function is realized by commands such as ilx.

[0004]

As described above, the e-mail function is generally provided by the operating system, but in the operating system such as UNIX, the transfer target is limited to the text format data. However, there is a drawback in that binary data such as image data cannot be transferred by electronic mail.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to process an electronic mail which can easily transfer even binary data such as image data by electronic mail. To provide a method.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a system in which only text format data is an electronic mail transfer target, and when the mail is sent, the transfer target is binary data such as image data. If so, the binary data is converted to text format, an identifier indicating that it is binary data is set in the user-defined field in the header of the mail, and the header is added to the beginning of the converted binary data in text format. When sending an email with the
If the user-defined field in the header part of the mail has an identifier indicating that it is binary data, the beginning of the text-format binary data is searched by the heading, and the search text-format binary data is converted to binary format. A mail processing unit for performing the above is provided.

[0007]

According to the electronic mail processing method of the present invention, when a mail is sent in a system in which only text data is transferred, the mail processing unit
If the transfer target is binary data such as image data, the binary data is converted to text format, and an identifier indicating that it is binary data is set in the user-defined field in the header part of the mail and converted. The heading is added to the beginning of the binary data in the text format and the mail is sent. In addition, when receiving an email, if the user-defined field in the header of the email has an identifier indicating that it is binary data, the beginning of the binary data in text format is searched for by the heading, and the binary data in text format is searched. The binary format is converted.

[0008]

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

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

In FIG. 1, a terminal 1 is connected to a network 2 so that a desired work can be performed. The network 2 is not limited to the wired system, but may be a wireless system.

In the terminal 1, U which controls the basic functions of the terminal is provided.
An operating system 11 such as NIX, a mail processing unit 12 that performs electronic mail processing of binary data such as image data, which is a characteristic part of the present invention, and an application program 13 that supports various jobs are provided. Also, text data 14 and binary data 1
Reference numeral 5 is data to be transferred by electronic mail. In addition,
Although the mail processing unit 12 is shown separately in the figure, it may be configured as a part of the application program 13 or, if possible, as a part of the operating system 11.

The operation of the above embodiment will be described below with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. Note that FIG. 2 shows a flow chart at the time of mail delivery, and FIG. 3 shows a flow chart at the time of mail reception.

When sending an e-mail, in FIG. 2, first, it is judged whether or not the data (file) to be transferred is binary data such as image data (step S1).

Here, if the data is not the binary data but the ordinary text format data (NO in step S1), the conventional ordinary mail processing is performed. There is nothing new about this point, so a description thereof will be omitted.

On the other hand, when the data is binary data (YES in step S1), the data format is converted from the binary format to the text format (step S).
2). Specifically, for example, in the case of a UNIX system, this processing can be performed by a utility provided by a uuencode command or the like.

Next, an identifier indicating that the data is originally binary data such as image data is set in the user-defined field of the header of the mail to be sent (step S3).

Next, a predetermined headline is attached to the head of the data which has already been converted into the text format and stored in a predetermined area of the mail data. FIG. 4 shows an outline of mail data including an identifier and a headline.

Next, returning to FIG. 2, the created mail data is sent (step S5). In this case, since the data is in text format, it is possible to use the command for the mail function which has been provided conventionally.

Next, when receiving a mail, in FIG. 3, first, the user-defined field in the header of the mail is checked (step S6).

Then, it is determined whether or not the user-defined field includes an identifier indicating that the transferred data is originally binary data such as image data (step S7).

Here, when the data is not the binary data but the normal text format data (NO in step S7), the conventional normal mail processing is performed. There is nothing new about this point, so a description thereof will be omitted.

On the other hand, when there is an identifier indicating that it is binary data (YES in step S7), the head of the binary data is searched by the heading (step S).
8).

Then, the text format binary data obtained by the search is converted from the text format to the binary format (step S9). This process is specifically performed by, for example, uudecod in the case of UNIX system.
This can be done by a utility provided by e command or the like.

Since the acquired binary data is exactly the same as the original image data and the like, it can be displayed as an image by a predetermined tool or used for other purposes.

[0025]

As described above, according to the electronic mail processing method of the present invention, binary data such as image data can be easily transmitted even in a system that can transfer only text format data such as UNIX as a mail. There is an effect that it can be transferred and the range of use of electronic mail can be expanded.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process in mail sending.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process of receiving a mail.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a logical configuration of mail data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Terminal 11 ... Operating system 12 ... Mail processing unit 13 ... Application program 14 ... Text data 15 ... Binary data 2 ... Network

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display area H04L 29/06

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a system in which only text-format data is transferred as an electronic mail, when the mail is sent and the transfer target is binary data such as image data, the binary data is converted to text format. Performs processing, sets an identifier to the effect that it is binary data in the user-defined field in the header of the email, adds a header to the beginning of the converted binary data in text format, and sends the email. If the user-defined field in the header part of the has an identifier indicating that it is binary data, the beginning of the text-format binary data is searched by the heading, and conversion processing to binary format is performed on the searched text-format binary data. E-mail processing method characterized by having a mail processing unit . 2. In the UNIX system, the uuuencode command is used for conversion from binary data to text format, and the uudecode command is used for conversion from textual binary data to binary format. E-mail processing method.