JPH0659993A - Method for controlling electronic mail utilizing data base - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an efficient electronic mail control method utilizing a data base by solving the complexity of message management for electronic mail. CONSTITUTION:After receiving the message of electronic mail (step 101), an electronic mail transmitting/receiving program substitutes (step 102) a field corresponding to a record in a data base for each item in a header part and stores (step 103) the record in a magnetic disk device by using a data base management system. The stored record is extracted (step 104) from the magnetic disk device by an application program(AP) to obtain any one of the reference, change and deletion of the record (step 106) or the analysis of the header part (step 107).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail control method, and more particularly to a system OA (office automation).
Relates to a method for controlling electronic mail using a database used when the financial information terminal exchanges electronic mail via a computer network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a basic form of electronic mail using a conventional LAN. Mails are transmitted and received among the plurality of workstations 61, 62, 63 connected to the LAN 65. Receiving an e-mail from a workstation (not shown) or sending an e-mail to a workstation (not shown) is performed by each workstation 6 via the workstation 61 that constitutes a gateway.
2, 63.

Such a network for sending and receiving electronic mail is constructed by a company or a group as an integrated office system and allows only users in the group to send and receive a mail. In such a method of managing email messages in an integrated office system, management is generally performed for each workstation of each user.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the structure of a conventional workstation for transmitting and receiving electronic mail. FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining a conventional electronic mail control method. A conventional control method will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

The message arriving at the workstation WS is first received by the message transmission / reception program 1 (step 501) and stored in the spool magnetic disk device 2 of the user (step 502). The stored message is retrieved by each user using the unique application program (AP) 3 (step 50).
3) The message is processed into a format according to the AP (step 504) and stored again in the magnetic disk device 2.
At the time of taking out, the message stored in the spool magnetic disk device 2 is erased.

Generally, electronic mail is a private message exchange with confidentiality. However, the conventional information regarding the usage status of electronic mail is added only to the header portion of the message. Therefore, it is left to each user to grasp the network status and manage messages with information disclosure while maintaining confidentiality. It is very important to properly understand the network status by partially disclosing the header part.

[0007]

However, the conventional electronic mail control method described above has a problem in that management is likely to be complicated and important information may be lost. Further, since each user manages the message at the same time, there is a problem that it becomes difficult to capture the maintenance information.
In other words, in the conventional control method, only the relevant user can refer to the header information, and the state of the e-mail network passage is unknown, so there is the problem that the delay bottleneck machine cannot be grasped and traffic increases. It was Furthermore, since message management depends on the AP of each user, it is inconvenient when reusing messages. In particular, when a common message is used within a group, there is a problem that information is leaked if only a specific user manages it.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the complexity of message management of electronic mail and to provide an efficient electronic mail control method using a database. To aim.

[0009]

The present invention uses a predetermined management information item in the header section as a key when transmitting and receiving an electronic mail message composed of a header section containing management information of the electronic mail and a text section. The data is stored in the database and retrieved.

[0010]

In the present invention, predetermined management information items in the header of the message are managed as records. As a result, the header part is made public, and the usage status of the electronic mail can be grasped and the usage status can be analyzed.

[0011]

[Embodiment] An e-mail message is composed of a header part and a text part. FIG. 3 shows the structure of the message. The header part is composed of eight items in the example shown in FIG. Hereinafter, this item will be described.

The route information indicates cumulative information indicating which workstation has passed what time. The return path indicates the other party's email address. Message ID
Indicates the serial number for that workstation. Your own address is your own email address, carbon copy is the email address of someone other than yourself, the subject is the subject of the message, the date and time is the date and time you requested to send, the recipient's address is the recipient's address and the details of the recipient Information is shown respectively. The text part is the body of the message.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the electronic mail transmission / reception of the workstation used in the control method of the present invention. The e-mail transmission / reception program 1 analyzes an e-mail address when sending an e-mail, determines a delivery destination or a delivery means, further creates or rewrites a header of a message, and when receiving, sends the received message to a predetermined magnetic disk device 2. Perform write operation. The database management system 4 is an electronic mail transmission / reception program 1
The header of the message received from is converted into a database key and written as one record in the spool magnetic disk device 2. The request for the e-mail from the end user is made by the application program (AP).
It is accepted in 3, and at the time of transmission, the other party's address, own address, carbon copy address and text which is the text are input and a transmission request is made. When receiving, the received message is displayed. On the maintenance side, instructions are given to save or delete the corresponding address.

Next, the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 will be described. The message is transmitted via the workstation from the time it is sent until it is received. Since this information is transmitted while being added to the route information in the header part of the message, when actually received, it is possible to know at what workstation and how much processing time was spent. Since the e-mail address of the workstation through which it passes has uniqueness, it is possible to easily determine which workstation is the bottleneck by analyzing the route information. It is also possible to search the processing time using the mail address of the workstation as a key and statistically check it.

The electronic mail is supposed to be sent to a specific individual, but there are also mails commonly sent to the members of the group. In this case, when an individual saves an email, the type code common to the group is rewritten in the record. At that time, send an email to the members in the group. You can also use this type code to maintain emails such as immediately deleting and saving for several months.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining the electronic mail control method of the present invention. After receiving the message (step 101), the electronic mail transmission / reception program 1 replaces each item in the header section with a field corresponding to a record in the database (step 102), and then uses the database management system 4 to replace the record with the magnetic disk device 2 (Step 103). At the same time, an authority attribute and a type code that can be read and written only by the owner and the system administrator are added to the field for the record. The stored record is accessed from the AP (step 104), and the usage pattern of the retrieved record differs depending on whether the accessor is the owner or the system administrator (step 105). In the case of the owner, he / she can refer to, change, delete, etc., but cannot change the header part (step 106). In the case of the system administrator, the analysis result of the header part can be obtained (step 107). The analysis of the header part is obtained by cumulatively calculating the inter-workstation difference time in a certain period based on the route information. For example, when a message is sent from the workstation A to the workstation D via the workstations B and C, the transmission line and the computer may be added depending on the transit times of the workstations A, B, C, and D to cause a bottleneck. Can be specified.

The type code in the record shown in FIG. 3 is used for the usage status of the message. For example, unread when registered, read when read, deleted if unnecessary there,
If applicable within the group, specify the usage method such as suitable for the group so that it can be used effectively both as an individual and as a group. The message for which reference, modification, deletion of the record and analysis of the header portion have been completed is stored again in the spool magnetic disk device.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, a predetermined management information item in the header section is used as a key for storing and retrieving in the database. Therefore, a message is registered in the database and the header section is stored. By making it public, it becomes possible to grasp the usage status of the e-mail, and it is possible to easily investigate the cause of the bottleneck.

Further, since the message is managed as a record in the database, maintenance work such as recovery, backup and monitoring can be supported. Further, since it is possible to extend the record by giving it an attribute, the record can be flexibly processed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an electronic mail control method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of electronic mail transmission / reception by the workstation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating registration of a message in a database according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of electronic mail transmission / reception by a conventional workstation.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a conventional electronic mail control method.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the basic form of a system for sending and receiving electronic mail using a LAN.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 E-mail transmission / reception program 2 Spool magnetic disk device 3 Application program (AP) 4 Database management system

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When sending and receiving an e-mail message composed of a header part containing e-mail management information and a text part, storing in a database using a predetermined management information item of the header part as a key, and an end user. A method of controlling an electronic mail using a database, which is characterized in that a message is retrieved according to the request of.