JPH07219864A - Management system for electronic mail - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the operation of electronic mails at any work station by managing concentrically the electronic mails and holding the management information overlapping with each other at each work station. CONSTITUTION:This system consists of a specific work station 1 where the electronic mails are concentrically managed, and the work stations 2 and 3 which are connected to a LA. The station 1 includes a mail transmission part 11, a mail reception part 12, a mail management part 13 which concentrically manages the electronic mails and also concentrically carries out the relative processings to output the executing result information and the electronic mail management information, a management information transmission part 14 which transmits those information to the LAN, and a control information reception part 15 which receives the operation control information on the electronic mails from the LAN. Meanwhile the stations 2 and 3 include the control information management parts 21 and 31 which hold the same management information as the part 13 and output the control information, the management information reception parts 23 and 33 which receive the management information and the executing result information, and the control information transmission parts 22 and 32 respectively.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail management system, and more particularly to an electronic mail management system for centrally managing electronic mail in a specific workstation in an environment in which a plurality of people share a plurality of workstations. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an environment in which each individual has to use an unspecified workstation in order for a plurality of people to use a plurality of workstations jointly, an electronic work is performed at a specific workstation connected to a communication network. Centralized management of emails is done. If you manage email centrally on a particular workstation,
Information about e-mail, such as whether or not an e-mail was received, was held only by a specific workstation. That is, only a specific workstation can perform an operation related to an email, such as whether or not an email has arrived and reference to the content of the email.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional electronic mail management system, when centralized management of electronic mail is performed in a specific workstation, other workstations check the existence of electronic mail and perform operations related to electronic mail. It was not possible and required the use of specific workstations to do them. That is, it is when a user can use a particular workstation that the user can get information about the email. This has been an obstacle to fully exerting the function of the electronic mail capable of transmitting information at high speed in an environment where a plurality of people share a plurality of workstations.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to distinguish between electronic mail management and electronic mail management information, and hold and manage the electronic mail management information in duplicate in each workstation. Is to provide an e-mail management system that enables e-mail operation from any workstation.

[0005]

According to an electronic mail management system of the present invention, a mail transmitting unit for transmitting an electronic mail to a specific workstation connected to a communication network and centrally managing the electronic mail, and a mail for receiving the electronic mail. A receiving unit, a mail management unit that centrally manages e-mail, receives e-mail control information, executes a process related to e-mail, and outputs execution result information and e-mail management information, and relates to e-mail management information and e-mail. Each work connected to the specific workstation by the local area network is provided with a management information transmitting section for transmitting execution result information to the local area network and a control information receiving section for receiving electronic mail control information from the local area network. The station stores and manages email management information. A control information management unit that outputs child mail control information, a management information reception unit that receives information from the management information transmission unit of the specific workstation, and electronic mail control information for the control information reception unit of the specific workstation. And a control information transmitting unit for transmitting the.

[0006]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic mail management system of this embodiment is such that a specific workstation 1 connected to a communication network for centrally managing electronic mail, and a work connected to the specific workstation 1 via a local area network. It is composed of stations 2 and 3. The specific workstation 1 executes an e-mail processing by executing a mail sending section 11 for sending an e-mail, a mail receiving section 12 for receiving an e-mail, a centralized management of the e-mail, receiving e-mail control information, and processing related to the e-mail. A mail management unit 13 that outputs result information and e-mail management information, a management information transmission unit 14 that sends e-mail management information and execution result information regarding e-mail to a local area network, and e-mail control from the local area network. Control information receiving unit 15 for receiving information
It has and. On the other hand, workstations 2 and 3
Are control information management units 21 and 31 that hold e-mail management information and output e-mail control information, and management information reception units 23 and 33 that receive information from the management information transmission unit 14 of the specific workstation 1. , Control information transmitters 22 and 32 for transmitting electronic mail control information to the control information receiver 15 of the specific workstation 1.

The mail sending unit 11 sends an electronic mail signal to the communication network based on the electronic mail information passed from the mail management unit 13. The mail receiving unit 12 receives an electronic mail signal from the communication network and passes the electronic mail information to the mail management unit 13.

The mail management unit 13, as shown in FIG.
Temporary area storage means 91, mail discrimination means 92, processing execution means 93, transmission destination information acquisition means 94, management information creation means 95, transmission information conversion means 96, control information discrimination / switching means 97, A registration workstation management table 98 and a mail arrival information management table 99 are provided, and the electronic mail information passed from the mail receiving unit 12 is analyzed and centrally managed, and its own device (specific workstation 1) and control information receiving unit. Various processes relating to the electronic mail are executed according to the control information received via 15.
The execution result is also sent to the workstations 2 and 3 via the management information transmitting unit 14 together with the electronic mail management information. Details will be described in a specific processing example described later.

3A and 3B are explanatory views of a management table held by the mail management unit 13. FIG. 3A shows a configuration example of the registered workstation management table 98, and FIG. 3B shows a mail arrival information management table 99. A configuration example of is shown. The former stores the address of each workstation to be centrally managed, and the latter stores the necessary information including the user ID of the destination, the user name, the arrival date and time as the management information of the received electronic mail.

As shown in FIG. 4, the control information management units 21 and 31 include control information conversion means 81, management information discrimination / switching means 82, input data discrimination / switching means 83, mail information storage means 84, and mail arrival information. Management table 85
In addition, the control information management table 86 is provided, and the management information received from the management information receiving units 23 and 33 is retained and managed and displayed to the user as necessary, and an electronic mail operation request from the user is received and controlled as control information. Information transmission unit 22,
Sent via 32. Details will be described in a specific processing example described later.

5A and 5B are explanatory views of a management table held by the control information management units 21 and 31. FIG. 5A is a configuration example of the mail incoming information management table 85, and FIG. 5B is a control information management. The structural example of the table 86 is shown. The former stores the same information as the mail arrival information management table 98 of the mail management unit 13, and the latter stores the mail command used for the processing related to the electronic mail.

Next, the specific processing execution operation of this embodiment will be described in detail by dividing it into four processing patterns.
The first processing pattern is processing related to incoming e-mail,
The second processing pattern is a processing related to fetching an electronic mail from a shared temporary storage area to a designated area of each individual,
The processing pattern of is the processing related to the transmission of the e-mail, the fourth
The processing pattern of is an electronic mail processing other than the above. Hereinafter, these four processing patterns will be sequentially described.

The information flow of the first processing pattern (processing relating to the incoming of electronic mail) is shown by the thick line in FIG. When the e-mail signal is received by the mail receiver 12,
The received electronic mail information is passed to the mail management unit 13. In the mail management unit 13, the mail discriminating unit 92 discriminates the type of e-mail and the like, and the e-mail received by the temporary area storage unit 91 is stored in the shared temporary storage area. The mail arrival information indicating that the mail has been received is created and registered in the mail arrival information management table 99, and the mail arrival information is converted into control information for outputting to the local area network. Further, the destination information acquisition means 94 searches the registered workstation management table 98 to acquire the address information of the destination of the mail arrival information. The sending information converting means 96 creates sending information by combining the mail arrival information converted into the control information by the management information creating means 95 and the address information of the destination, and passes the sending information to the management information sending part 14. The management information transmission unit 14 transmits the mail arrival information to the workstations 2 and 3 in accordance with the transmission request from the mail management unit 13.

The management information receiving units 23 and 33 of the workstations 2 and 3 respectively receive the mail incoming information sent from the management information transmitting unit 14 and receive the control information managing unit 2
Pass to 1,31. The control information management unit 21, 31 determines by the management information determination / switching unit 82 whether the information passed from the management information receiving unit 23, 33 is the mail arrival information, the cancellation information of the mail arrival information, or the execution result information. To do.
In this case, it is determined as mail arrival information, and the mail information storage means 84 stores the mail arrival information (user ID, user name, etc.) in the mail arrival information management table 85. As a result, the workstations 2 and 3 receive the mail arrival information management table 85 when needed, such as at the start of use.
By referring to, the incoming mail information can be displayed on the screen as a standard output to inform the user.

FIG. 7 shows a flow of information of the second processing pattern (processing relating to fetching of electronic mail from the shared temporary storage area to the designated area of each individual). FIG. 7 shows a case where the user C who is using the workstation 3 sees the output of the mail arrival information and inputs the request command for fetching the electronic mail from the shared temporary storage area to the personal storage area. Show. A request command from the user C to the workstation 3 is passed to the control information management section 31, and the input data discrimination / switching means 83 searches the control information management table 86 to check whether or not there is a corresponding command in the table. If it is not determined, it is released from the control information management unit 31 and is executed in the workstation 3 as a normal command other than electronic mail. In this case, because it is in the table, it is recognized as a command related to email,
The control information converting means 81 converts the control information into corresponding control information, and issues a transmission request to the control information transmitting section 32 to transmit the control information to the specific workstation 1.

The control information receiving section 15 of the specific workstation 1 receives the control information from the control information transmitting section 32 and transfers it to the mail managing section 13. The mail management unit 13 determines whether the passed control information is an electronic mail transmission request by the control information determination / switching unit 97. In this case, since it is not an e-mail transmission request, the process executing means 93 causes the command to be executed, and the e-mail information corresponding to the specified user C storage area is fetched from the shared temporary storage area. When the fetching process is executed, the mail arrival information of the corresponding electronic mail is deleted from the mail arrival information management table 99, and the execution result information and the cancellation information of the mail arrival information are returned to the control information determining / switching means 97. The control information discriminating / switching means 97 passes the cancellation information and the execution result information to the transmission information converting means 96, and at the same time, searches the registered workstation management table 98 by the transmission destination information acquiring means 94 to find out the registered workstations. The address information is taken out and passed to the transmission information converting means 96. At the same time as the request for transmitting the execution result information to the work station 3 which is the request source, the transmission information converting means 96 issues a request for transmitting the cancellation information to both the work stations 2 and 3 to the management information transmitting section 14. The management information transmission unit 14 transmits the cancellation information and the execution result information according to the request from the mail management unit 13.

The management information receiving units 23 and 33 of the workstations 2 and 3 respectively receive the cancellation information of the mail incoming information and pass it to the control information managing units 21 and 31. The control information management units 21 and 31 include management information determination / switching means 8
It is determined whether the information passed in 2 is incoming mail information, cancellation information, or execution result information. In this case, since it is cancellation information, the mail information storage means 84 deletes the corresponding mail arrival information in the mail arrival information management table 85. In addition, in the workstation 3, the management information receiving unit 33 receives the execution result information from the management information transmitting unit 14 and passes it to the control information management unit 31, and the management information determining / switching unit 82 determines the execution result information. To be done. The execution result information is displayed as it is on the output screen.

FIG. 8 shows an information flow of the third processing pattern (processing relating to transmission of electronic mail). FIG. 8 shows a case where the user C using the workstation 3 sends an electronic mail. When the user C inputs a transmission request command together with the electronic mail transmission information (mail content, destination) as input data, in the control information management section 31, the input data discrimination / switching means 83 searches the control information management table 86. Then, the control information converting means 81 recognizes the command as an electronic mail and passes it as control information to the control information transmitting unit 32. The control information transmitting unit 32 transmits the command and the electronic mail transmission information as control information according to the request.

The control information receiving section 15 of the specific workstation 1 receives the control information and transfers it to the mail management section 13. The mail management unit 13 determines whether the control information determination / switching unit 97 is an electronic mail transmission request. In this case, since the request is a transmission request, the process executing means 93
Passes the e-mail transmission information to the mail transmission unit 11 and issues a transmission request. The mail sending unit 11 creates and sends an electronic mail signal according to the request. The process execution means 93 returns the execution result information to the control information discrimination / switching means 97, and the control information discrimination / switching means 97 manages the transmission result conversion means 96 to transmit the execution result information to the requesting workstation 3. The information transmission unit 14 is requested. The management information transmitting unit 14 transmits the execution result information according to the request.

Management information receiving section 3 of workstation 3
3 receives the execution result information and passes it to the control information management unit 31. In the control information management unit 31, the management information discriminating / switching unit 82 determines that the result is the execution result information, and outputs it as it is to the standard output to be displayed on the screen. In this case, no change occurs in the workstation 2.

FIG. 9 shows an information flow of the fourth processing pattern (processing relating to electronic mail other than incoming, receiving, and sending, for example, referring to electronic mail). FIG. 9 shows a case where the user C requests the e-mail reference from the workstation 3. In response to the input of the operation command regarding the electronic mail, the control information management unit 31 searches the control information management table 86 by the input data discrimination / switching means 83,
Recognizing the command as an electronic mail, the control information converting means 81 converts the control information into control information, and requests the control information transmitting section 32 to transmit the control information to the specific workstation 1. The control information transmission unit 32 transmits according to the request of the control information management unit 31.

The control information receiving section 15 of the specific workstation 1 receives the control information and transfers it to the mail management section 13. In the mail management unit 13, the control information determination / switching unit 97 determines that the request is not an e-mail transmission request, the process execution unit 93 executes it, and the e-mail information requested to be referred is returned as execution result information. The execution result information is passed from the control information discriminating / switching means 97 to the management information transmitting section 14 via the transmission information converting means 96, and is transmitted to the workstation 3 which is the request source.

Management information receiving section 3 of workstation 3
3 passes the received execution result information to the control information management unit 31. In the control information management section 31, the management information discriminating / switching means 82 recognizes the e-mail information to be referred to as the execution result information and outputs it to the standard output to be displayed on the screen. The e-mail to be referred to is the mail management unit 13
It may be in either the shared temporary storage area under the control of or the storage area of the owner. The same applies to the case of deleting the electronic mail from the user's storage area, but the case of deleting from the shared temporary storage area is the same as the case of importing in FIG. 7.

[0026]

As described above, according to the electronic mail management system of the present invention, incoming electronic mail is centrally managed in the shared temporary storage area of a specific workstation, but the management information is duplicated in each workstation. It is retained so all workstations can check for email. Further, the operation related to the electronic mail can be performed while using any workstation, and the processing result can be obtained. That is, there is an effect that an operation relating to an electronic mail can be performed from an unspecified workstation without being aware of the workstation being used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a mail management unit of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a management table shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a control information management unit of FIG.

5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a management table shown in FIG.

6 is an explanatory diagram showing a flow of information at the time of receiving an electronic mail in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a flow of information at the time of importing an electronic mail in FIG.

8 is an explanatory diagram showing a flow of information at the time of transmitting the electronic mail in FIG. 1. FIG.

9 is an explanatory diagram showing a flow of information when referring to the electronic mail in FIG. 1. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 mail transmission unit 12 mail reception unit 13 mail management unit 14 management information transmission unit 15 control information reception unit 21, 31 control information management unit 22, 32 control information transmission unit 23, 33 management information reception unit 81 control information conversion unit 82 management Information discrimination / switching means 83 Input data discrimination / switching means 84 Mail information storage means 85,99 Mail incoming information management table 86 Control information management table 91 Temporary area storage means 92 Mail determination means 93 Processing execution means 94 Destination information acquisition means 95 Management information creation means 96 Transmission information conversion means 97 Control information discrimination / switching means 98 Registered workstation management table

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail control unit for centrally managing e-mails, a mail sending unit for sending e-mails, a mail receiving unit for receiving e-mails, and a specific workstation connected to a communication network for centrally managing e-mails. A mail management unit that receives information and executes processing related to e-mail and outputs execution result information and e-mail management information, and management information that sends e-mail management information and execution result information related to e-mail to a local area network An e-mail is provided that includes a sending part and a control information receiving part that receives e-mail control information from a local area network, and holds and manages e-mail management information in each workstation connected to the specific workstation by the local area network. A control information management unit for outputting control information; A management information receiving unit for receiving information from the management information transmitting unit of the specific workstation, and a control information transmitting unit for transmitting electronic mail control information to the control information receiving unit of the specific workstation. And e-mail management system.