JPH06237268A - Electronic mail processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify aggregating procedures and to easily recognize a mail meeting a specific condition by combining conditions inputted by a user to produce sets of reception mails and displaying them in a prescribed display form. CONSTITUTION:A display form accepting means 12 displays a display switching property sheet for designation of a reception mail display form and accepts the indication from the user. An aggregating means 13 aggregates electronic mails based on the display form indicated by the means 12. A display form attribute holding means 14 holds a display form attribute for aggregation of electronic mails, and the means 13 takes out the display form attribute of the means 14 to aggregate the electronic mails. If priority levels are added to received electronic mails, they are detected by a priority level detecting means 15, and detected electronic mails having high priority levels are displayed in distinction from the other electronic mails by a display control means 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of displaying electronic mail received from a mail server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electronic mail system, sending and receiving of mail is provided by a mail service of a mail server connected on a network. This mail service centrally manages the mailboxes of individual network subscribers. With regard to the mail sent to the mail server, this mail is written in the mailbox of the destination subscriber, and a reception request is made. With regard to the mail that has been sent, a service is provided in which the mail is extracted from a designated predetermined mailbox and sent to the request source.

Conventionally, the electronic mails sent from the mail server are displayed in a list form on the screen, and the user collects each mail by his / her own collection rule (for example, the same sender, the same sending date, etc.). Was organized based on.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned list format display, the mails are simply arranged in chronological order, and it takes time for the user to search for the mails that meet his or her aggregation rule. There was a problem of this.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail processing device that simplifies the procedure for collecting mails and can easily recognize mails that meet a specific condition.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the electronic mail processing device according to the present invention,
Based on a set condition receiving means for receiving a set condition specification for a received electronic mail from a user and at least one set condition specified by the set condition receiving means, for example, an electronic mail is set in a calendar format or the like. And an assembling means for

The mail gathering condition is a condition for designating in what format the mail is displayed, and is specifically set as the mail display format. The display format is, for example, a calendar format in which emails are grouped according to the date they are sent and aggregated as a calendar for one month, or a group format in which emails are aggregated based on conditions entered in specified items such as the subject and sender. There is.

[0008]

When the user inputs the collecting condition of the received mail through the property window or the like, the inputted collecting condition is accepted by the collecting condition receiving means, and the collecting condition is set by the collecting means. After that, when receiving the mail from the mail server, the collecting means collects the mail based on the set collecting conditions. In the case of aggregation, the condition may be a single condition or a combination of a plurality of conditions.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an electronic mail processing device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the basic construction of a workstation to which the electronic mail processing device according to the present invention is applied.

The display unit 1 is provided with a display screen such as a CRT, and displays mails in a window displayed on the screen by a method such as a list format.

The multi-window system control unit 2 manages the display of a plurality of application windows displayed on the screen.

The keyboard 3 is an input device for inputting data such as commands and character strings, and is connected to a mouse 4 for selecting instructions on the screen. Various data and instructions input from the keyboard 3 and the mouse 4 are sent to the central processing unit 10 through the input control unit 5.

The external storage device 6 is a magnetic disk or the like.
It is composed of the following storage device. The received mail is stored in the mail storage area set internally. Input / output of data to / from the external storage device 6 is controlled by the external storage device controller 7.

The mail receiving device 8 receives a mail (hereinafter, received mail) sent from a mail server (not shown), and delivers it to the multi-window system control unit 2. The received mail is "subject", "sender", "sent date",
The mail receiving device 8 is composed of attributes such as "comment".
Holds attributes for each received mail.

The mail processing device 9 manages the display format of the mails stored in the mail storage area of the external storage device 6, and displays the mails in a list format or collects them according to the user's instruction. Processing such as displaying is performed. The mail processing device 9 also performs processing such as displaying a property sheet for mail processing and searching for mail.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the mail processing device 9. In the figure, the mail processing control unit 11 has an input / output interface, and activates the functional means described later according to an instruction from the user,
The processing result from the functional means is delivered to the multi-window system control unit. The mail processing control unit 11 also performs basic processing such as displaying the above-mentioned mails in a list format and displaying a property sheet.
Note that some or all of the functions of the mail processing control unit 11 can be realized by the multi-window system control unit 2.

The display format receiving means 12 displays a display switching property sheet for designating the display format of the received mail, and receives instructions from the user. Assembling means 13
Performs a process of assembling electronic mails based on at least one display format designated by the display format accepting means 12. The display format attribute holding unit 14 holds display format attributes for collecting electronic mail. In this embodiment, the display format attributes are "calendar" and "group".
Holding The aggregating means 13 extracts the display format attributes of the display format attribute holding means 14 and aggregates the mails.

If a priority is added to the received e-mail, the priority detecting means 15 performs a process of detecting the priority, and the display controlling means 16 causes the priority detecting means 15 to detect the priority.
The high-priority e-mail detected in step 3 is displayed separately from other e-mails.

The registration means 17 stores the sender list of the electronic mail inputted by the user, and the sound generation means 18
Uses the dial tone prepared in the system to notify the user of the reception of the e-mail. The collation means 19 collates the sender of the received electronic mail with the sender registered in the registration means 17, and the pronunciation control means 20 is judged to be the electronic mail from the sender registered in the verification means 19. In this case, the user is notified of the reception of the electronic mail through the sound producing means 18.

In the mail processing device 9 described above,
Some of the functions of each means can be executed by other means, or can be executed in combination with other means.
Also, some or all of the functions related to display can be executed by the multi-window system control unit 2.

The central processing unit 10 (FIG. 2) is a processor section composed of a CPU, etc., and operates the above-mentioned sections in accordance with a control program to control / manage the entire system and perform various calculations on predetermined data. Perform processing.

Next, a specific example of displaying the mail by the above-mentioned workstation will be described. First, as a first embodiment, a case will be described in which received mails are collected according to a designated display format.

FIG. 3 shows a display format of a general inbox window. This window is used to check the list and contents of the saved mails and is generated by the mail processing control unit 11 (FIG. 1). In FIG. 3, a window title is represented by an inbox 21, a reception 22 as a window command, and a display switch 23 newly added for the present invention are prepared. Here, when the display switching command 23 is executed, the display switching property sheet shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. This display switching property sheet is generated by the display format receiving means 12 (FIG. 1). To cancel the display of the property sheet, the cancel command 26 is executed.

The property window shown in FIG. 4 is a window for setting the display format 27, and the window title is represented by the display switching property 24. The calendar item 28 is a selection item for displaying mails in a calendar display format, and the group item 29 is a selection item for displaying only mails that match specified conditions. When the group item 29 is selected, the subject item 30 and the sender item 31 can be selected. Furthermore, subject item 3
When 0 is selected, subject key input area 3 of subject key item 31
2 can be input. In this example, “<NF89>” is input as the subject key input data 33. Also,
When the sender item 34 is selected, the name input area 36 of the sender key item 35 can be input. In this example, “Yamada” is input as the name input data 37.

Now, in the property window shown in FIG. 4, when only the calendar format 28 is selected as the display format 27 and the completion command 25 is executed, the calendar display window 38 shown in FIG. 5 is displayed. This window is generated by the assembling means 13. To close the window, the close command 39 is executed. The last month command 40 is a command for displaying the month immediately before the currently displayed month, and the next month command 41 is a command for displaying the month immediately before the currently displayed month. Calendar display area 4
In the mail display area 43 of each day in 2, the mail is displayed for each transmission date. FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of the mail display area 43 on August 10, 1992 of the calendar display window 38. In FIG. 6, FIG.
Among the emails listed in, the transmission date is "1992.8.1.
A mail that is "0" is displayed. In this way, by collecting the received mails in the calendar display format, it is possible to easily recognize the existence of the mails of the same transmission date.

On the other hand, when the group item 29 of the display format 27 is selected in the property window of FIG. 4 and the subject item 30 and sender item 34 are set as shown in FIG. A group display window 45 as shown is displayed. In the key data display area 46, the subject key “<NF89>” and the sender key “Yamada” are displayed. In this example, FIG.
In the mails listed in, the mails including the characters “<NF89>” in the subject and the sender being Yamada are displayed in the mail display area 43. In this way, by grouping the received mails in the group display format, it is possible to easily search for mails that match the specified conditions.

Next, a flow of processing when the above-mentioned received mails are collected will be described with reference to a flowchart.
First, the overall processing flow will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, it is judged whether or not a display switching command is added to the inbox (FIG. 4) (step 10
1) If not added, a display switching command is added to the inbox (step 102). When there is a display switching command, the display switching command is waited until it is executed (step 103), and when the display switching command is executed, the display switching property is displayed (step 10).
4). Then, it is judged whether or not the cancel command and the completion command have been executed (steps 105, 10).
6). Step 1 when the cancel command is executed
03, the process returns to step 105 when the completion command has not been executed. When the completion command is executed in step 106, it is determined whether or not a calendar item is selected (step 107), and when it is selected, the process proceeds to the subroutine of FIG. 9 to perform calendar display processing (step 108). . When the calendar item is not selected in step 107, it is determined whether or not the group item is selected (step 109). When it is selected, the process proceeds to the subroutine of FIG. 10 and the group display process is performed. (Step 110).

The flow of the calendar display process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the assembling unit 13 (FIG. 1) acquires the calendar display format attribute from the display format attribute holding unit 14 and mail data from the mail storage area of the external storage device 6 (step 20).
1) Collect mails by sending date (step 20)
2). Next, a calendar window is created (step 203), and the mails collected for each sending date are displayed in the mail display area of the created calendar window (step 204). Then, it waits until the close command is executed (step 205).

The flow of the group display process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the assembling unit 13 (FIG. 1) acquires a subject key and a sender key from the display format receiving unit 12 (steps 301 and 302) and creates a group display window (step 303). Next, mail data is acquired from the mail storage area of the external storage device 6 (step 304), mails that match the conditions of the subject key and sender key are searched and grouped, and then displayed in the mail display area (step). 305). Then, it waits until the close command is executed (step 306).

In this embodiment, the calendar display window and the group display window are displayed by selecting the items of the display switching property sheet, but the processing can be changed so that a certain specific grouping is always performed and displayed. . For example, a display format is conceivable in which only those that meet the group conditions are displayed in the mail display area 43 in FIG. Further, the display format is not limited to “calendar” or “group”, and other display formats can be applied.

Next, as a second embodiment, a case will be described in which a received mail that matches a predetermined condition is displayed separately from others.

Conventionally, there is known a system in which priority is added to mail control information so that high-priority mail is preferentially accessed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-187663).
Issue Bulletin). However, the conventional system does not consider reflecting the priority on the display of the mail.
In this embodiment, the priority of the received mail is visually displayed.

It is assumed that, when the received mails are displayed in a list format as shown in FIG. 3, the priority of "high" is added to the mails having the subject "<NF89>News". Here, when a priority command (not shown) is executed, the priority detection means 15 (FIG. 1) detects the priority of the displayed mail and takes out the mail to which the priority "high" is added. As shown in FIG. 11, the display control means 16 displays a window in which only the mail having the subject "<NF89>News" is colored. Or
When the received mails are displayed in a list format, the high priority mails may be automatically colored.

In this way, by displaying the received mail having a high priority in distinction from other mails, it is possible to easily retrieve only the mails that match the specified conditions.

Next, the flow of processing when a high priority mail is displayed separately from other mails will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the priority detection means 15 (FIG. 1) acquires mail data from the mail storage area of the external storage device 7 (step 401). Next, the control information of each mail is referred to (step 402), and it is determined whether or not there is a mail with the priority "high" (step 403). Here, when there is a mail with the priority “high”, the display control means 16
The mail data in which the coloring information is added to the corresponding mail is transferred to the mail processing control unit 11 (step 404).
The mail processing control unit 11 displays the mail to which the coloring information is added by distinguishing it from other mails through the multi-window system control unit 2 (FIG. 2) (step 4).
05). If there is no high priority mail, the priority detecting means 15 passes the acquired mail data as it is to the mail processing control unit 11 (step 406). In the mail processing control unit 11, the multi-window system control unit 2
Through (FIG. 2), the mail is displayed in a normal list format (step 407).

As a display method other than coloring, there are diagonal lines, reverse display and the like, which can be selected according to the display screen used.

Next, as a third embodiment, description will be given of a case where a sound is generated when a mail that meets a predetermined condition is received.

Conventionally, there is known a system in which, when a mail is received, the sounding means notifies the user of the existence of the mail by a dial tone.
According to this, the user can immediately take out and view the mail sent to himself. However, in the conventional system, a dial tone always sounds when an email is received,
I had to urgently see it, and often I took out emails to see them. In this embodiment, the priority is auditorily displayed by utilizing the priority added to the received mail.

FIG. 13 is a schematic configuration diagram of an electronic mail system to which the workstation of this embodiment is connected. This system is a workstation 47 (47-1) connected to a network and having means for sending and receiving mail.
~ N), a mail server 48 which is also connected to the network and which delivers mails to each workstation, and a name server 49 which holds information such as recipient addresses and a list of recipient addresses included in the distribution list. There is. Further, the mail server 48 is provided with a mailbox corresponding to each recipient, and the delivered mail can be taken out from the workstation.

The mail sending means of the workstation requests the mail server 48, which delivers the mail to each workstation, to specify the destination list and deliver the mail. In this case, the mail can be sent by designating the mail destination and the like on the mail sending property sheet as shown in FIG. 14 and executing the send command 50. Upon receiving the request, the mail server 48 creates a recipient address list to be delivered from the recipient list,
Deliver the mail to the mailbox corresponding to the recipient address. In the workstation 47 having a mail receiving means, the mail means 48 accesses the mail server 48 at an appropriate time interval, and if there is a mail delivered to the mailbox corresponding to the user, the mail server 48 sends the mail. To receive more. At this time, when it is desired to sound the reception sound only when the mail from the specific sender is received, the specification is made by the sender list specification option sheet as shown in FIG. In FIG. 15, the item of the recipient 51 is a selection item of whether or not to sound the received sound when the mail of the designated sender is received, and it is “ON” when the sound is emitted and “OFF” when the sound is not emitted. Select. The item of the sender list 52 that pronounces the received sound is an item for registering the name of the sender who wants to pronounce the received sound. In this example, three senders are registered. When the user executes the apply command 53, the contents designated by the sender list designation option sheet are stored in the registration means 17 (FIG. 1) as a sender list.

When the mail is received from the mail server 48, the collating means 19 (FIG. 1) collates the sender list of the registering means 16 and, if the sender of the received mail is registered, the pronunciation control means 20. To start. The sound generation control means 20 causes the sound generation means 18 to sound the received sound, and notifies the user of the reception of the mail. As the received sound, for example, a library call that produces a sound provided by a general operating system can be used. According to this
Only when the mail from the registered sender is received, the received sound is pronounced to call attention, so the number of times to read the mail that does not need to be seen immediately can be reduced.

Next, the flow of processing when a mail is received from the mail server will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the user's mail is received from the mail server (step 501), and the sender of the mail is taken out (step 502). Next, the sender list is taken out from the registration means 17, the registered sender is collated with the sender of the mail (step 503), and whether the sender of the mail is registered in the sender list is checked. A judgment is made (step 504). When the sender of the mail is registered, the sounding control means 20 is activated and the sounding means 18 causes the received sound to sound (step 505).

[0047]

As described above, in the electronic mail processing device according to the present invention, a set of received mails is created by combining the conditions input by the user, and the set of received mails is displayed in a predetermined display format. Since it is displayed, it is possible to simplify the procedure for assembling mails, and it is possible to easily recognize mails that meet specific conditions.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a mail processing device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a workstation to which the electronic mail processing device according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display format of a general inbox window.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display switching property sheet.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a calendar display window.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a partial area of a calendar display window.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a group display window.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an overall processing flow when collecting received mails.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of calendar display processing.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of calendar display processing.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a window in which a specific mail is colored.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when a high priority mail is displayed separately from other mails.

FIG. 13 is a schematic configuration diagram of an electronic mail system to which the workstation of the third embodiment is connected.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a mail transmission property sheet.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a sender list designation option sheet.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when a mail is received from the mail server.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Multi-window system control unit, 8 ... Mail receiving device, 9 ... Mail processing device, 10 ... Central processing device, 11
... Mail processing control unit, 12 ... Display format receiving means, 13 ...
Collecting means, 14 ... Display format attribute holding means, 15 ... Priority detection means, 16 ... Display control means, 17 ... Registration means, 1
8 ... Sound generating means, 19 ... Collating means, 20 ... Sound generating means

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toru Murai 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa KSP R & D Business Park Building Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail processing device for displaying a plurality of received electronic mails in a list format, and a set condition receiving means for receiving specification of a set condition for the received electronic mails, and at least one specified set condition. An electronic mail processing device comprising: an assembling means for assembling electronic mail based on the above.