JPH07264236A - Mail display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely shows an electronic mail to the user just before the use of a program with respect to the mail display device and to surely send a reply with respect to the mail. CONSTITUTION:The system using the display device is made up of a mail reception section 1, a mail box 2, a mail priority discrimination device 3 checking the content of the mail box 2 so as to discriminate whether or not a received electronic mail is an urgent mail or whether or not a reply is required, a mail output wait device 4 monitoring the start of a program being a priority object when the program is not started, a mail window generating section 5 generating a window to display the content of the mail and to receive a return mail, a display device 6, an event monitor 7 displaying the active window generated by the mail window generating section 5 onto the display device 6 and avoiding the end of window display till the reply mail is finished, a reply mail edit section 8 receiving character strings entered by the mail window generating section 5 as a reply mail and a reply mail transmission section 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail display device,
More specifically, the present invention relates to a device for handling electronic mails sent from other terminals between computer terminals.

[0002] Electronic mail is sometimes urgent, and the reply to it is also urgent. For this reason, a mechanism is required to make sure that the content of the electronic mail is seen by the other party and to send the reply surely.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional device relating to electronic mail, there are many fixed settings such that the urgency of an electronic mail to be sent is determined by the terminal type and user attribute as the priority of the mail. Further, even when the urgency of the electronic mail can be set as the priority of displaying the mail on the sending side, only a narrow range of setting such as unconditional display can be set. Further, the displayed mail could be easily deleted or deleted by the operation of the receiver without returning a reply.

[0004]

Therefore, if an urgent e-mail is stored in the mailbox, the contents cannot be confirmed unless an operation such as "retrieving mail" is performed, and a reply is returned. If the transmission is not compulsory, it may be possible to end without replying. Also, as the sender's intention, instead of always displaying the highest priority,
When using a certain program, you may want to send an e-mail notification immediately before the start of use.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a mail display device capable of surely showing an electronic mail to a user just before using the program and surely transmitting a reply thereto. Is intended to provide.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a mail receiving unit for receiving an electronic mail from another terminal, 2 is a mailbox for holding the received electronic mail, 3 is the contents of the mailbox 3 for checking whether the received electronic mail is urgent. A mail priority judging device 4 for judging whether or not a reply is necessary, 4 is a mail output standby device for monitoring the start of the program when the program to be prioritized is not started, and 5 is sent. A mail window creating unit for creating a window for displaying the contents of an electronic mail and inputting a reply mail, 6 is a display device capable of displaying various information in multi-windows, and 7 is a mail window creating unit 5 for the display device 6. An event monitor that displays the Windu created in step 1 as active and does not end the window display until the reply is completed. Device, 8 reply mail editing unit for capturing a character string input by the mail Windu generator 5 as a reply mail, 9 is a reply mail transmitting unit that transmits the reply mail.

[0007]

EFFECTS: E-mail received from the sender by adding the priority type and the program name to be executed on the receiver and transmitting the e-mail, and the receiver e-mail priority judgment device 3 judges the priority and receives the e-mail. Determine if is urgent and needs a reply. Then, the priority of the received e-mail is changed according to the judgment result. As a result, the user can interrupt the work and immediately respond to the content of the sent email. In addition, in response to this, the mail window generation unit 5 automatically displays a reply mail creation screen in a multi-window display for an e-mail for which a reply request is made, and the event monitoring device 7 indicates that the reply mail transmission is not completed. Prevented the Windu display screen from disappearing. As a result, the user can be sure to see the electronic mail immediately before using the program, and the reply to the electronic mail can be surely transmitted.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the format of an email with priority. Body 1 containing the contents of the message
1 and a header section 10 in which a program name that gives priority to display is stored. The header section 10 is composed of a sender ID, a priority type, and a program name to which the priority type is applied. The priority type is a priority order determined by, for example, the terminal type, the user attribute and the like.

As is clear from this format, the program name of the mail to be output with priority is given by the sender. Therefore, the sender can specify the program name that gives priority to the output of the mail.

FIG. 3 is a program diagram showing an example of a concrete configuration of the mail priority determination device 3. The mail receiving unit 20 stores the received e-mail in the mailbox 2,
The mail priority determination unit 21 is activated. The mail priority determination unit 21 extracts the program name of the mail to be output with priority over the header unit 10 of the mail in the mailbox 2.

Reference numeral 22 is an operating system (OS) provided in the mail priority determination device 3, 22a is a control table provided therein, and 22b is a boot program list provided in the control table 22a. . The startup program list 22b is a list of various programs used in the mail display device. For example,
There are programs such as editing programs and editors.

The mail priority determination unit 21 compares the program name read from the mailbox 2 with the program name in the boot program list 22b. If there is the extracted program name in the activation program list 22b, the mail window generating unit 5 is activated. The mail window generation unit 5 creates a mail window and displays it on the display device 6.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the mail window. In the figure, 6a is a mail display unit for displaying the contents of the message portion 11 of the received mail. Reference numeral 6b denotes a reply mail input section, which is a section for creating and displaying a reply mail sentence. Reference numeral 6c is a reply button. After the reply text is input to the reply mail input section 6b, the reply mail is transmitted by pressing this button. If there is an existing display screen, the mail display unit 6a and the reply mail input unit 6b are overlapped on the existing display screen, and the multi-window display is performed.

If the mail priority determination unit 21 recognizes that the program name is not found in the boot program list 22b, the mail output standby device 4 is booted.
The mail output standby device 4 suspends the display of the mail window until the corresponding program is activated. In this way, it is possible to determine whether to display the mail window or suspend the display depending on the state of the program that is actually started.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a concrete example of the configuration of the event monitoring device 7. The same parts as those in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 are designated by the same reference numerals. Event monitoring device 7
Is roughly divided into an application window resource 30, a mail window resource 40, and a window control unit 50. The window controller 50 is connected to the display device 6, and is also connected to the mouse 51 and / or the keyboard 52.

In the application window resource 30, an event monitor 31 and an event queue 32 are provided.
Is included. The event monitoring unit 31 includes an event determination unit 31a. Also, mail window
The resource 40 includes an event monitoring unit 41, an event queue 42, and a reply text buffer 43.

In the display device 6, 6d is an application display section. When an e-mail is received, the e-mail is displayed overlapping the application display portion 6d as shown in the figure. Reference numeral 13 is a mail window, and 14 is an application window.

The event monitor 7 preferentially displays the mail window 13 with respect to the application window 14. Then, in order to ensure a reply to the mail, it is necessary to perform processing in the event monitoring units 31 and 41 of both the mail window 13 and the application window 14. That is, mail window 1
The event monitoring unit 41 for 3 must perform the following processing. (A) The mail window 13 is in an active state (for example, input from an input device such as the keyboard 52 is valid)
At the same time, the application window 14 is set to the inactive state (the state where the input from the input device is invalid), and the operation of the application window 14 is disabled. (B) Of the operations on the mail window 13, operations other than operations related to replying to mail are rejected so that the mail window 13 cannot be closed by operations other than replying to mail.

Further, the event monitoring section 31 of the application window 14 needs to perform the following processing. (A) All operations on the application window 14 are ignored until the mail window 13 is closed, and the operation on the application window 14 is disabled unless a reply mail is sent.

Next, the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 5 will be described in detail. (1) Operation of Event Monitoring Unit 41 in Mail Window The mail window 13 is generated by the mail window generating unit 5 and displayed on the display device 6. The event monitoring unit 41 first turns on the event discard flag 33 on the application window side and deactivates the window attribute 34. As a result, the mail window 13 is forcibly displayed, and the operation on the application window 14 is prohibited.

The event monitoring unit 41 monitors the event queue 42 in which user operations performed on the mail window 13 are queued as events, and when the event is queued in the event queue 42, Retrieve the event. Then, as a result of determining the event type, if the event is an event other than the event in which the reply button 6c is pressed, the event is discarded.
On the other hand, in the event that the reply button 6c has been pressed, the reply text buffer 43 in which the write result for the reply input field is stored is checked. If no text has been entered in the reply text buffer 43, the event is discarded as if no reply has been entered.

In this way, the reply mail is sent by discarding the event except when the reply button 6c is pressed and the reply button 6c is pressed but the text is input in the reply input field. It prevents the mail window 13 from being closed without it. When the text is entered in the reply text buffer 43, the event monitoring unit 41 calls the reply mail editing unit 8, creates a reply mail, and sends the reply mail from the reply mail sending unit 9 to the reply destination.

After sending the reply mail, the event monitoring unit 41
Turns off the event discard flag 33 of the application window 14 and activates the window attribute,
The mail window closing unit 12 is activated and the mail window 13 is closed. By this processing, the application window 14 returns to the original state and the operation of the application window can be performed.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the operation of the event monitor 41 on the mail window side. First, the event discard flag 33 is turned on for the application window 14 (S1), and the window attribute 34 is made inactive (S2). In this way, the operation of the application window side is disabled. Next, it is checked whether or not there is an interrupt in the event queue 42 (S3). If there is no interrupt, wait until there is an interrupt.

If there is an interrupt, the interrupt type is retrieved from the event queue 42 (S4), and the interrupt type is determined (S5). If the interrupt is other than the reply interrupt, the event is discarded and step S3
Return to. If the interrupt is a reply interrupt, it is checked whether text is written in the reply text buffer 43 (S6). If the text is not filled, the event is discarded and the process returns to step S3.

If the reply text is entered, the reply mail editing unit 8 is activated to create a reply mail (S).
7). Then, the reply mail is transmitted from the reply mail transmitter 9 (S8). After sending the reply mail, the event discard flag 33 of the application window 14 is turned off (S9), and the window attribute 34 is activated (S10). And the mail window close part 12
Is started and the mail window 13 is closed (S11).
As a result, the application window 14 becomes operable.

(2) Operation of the event monitor 31 in the application window The event monitor 31 on the application window side
Calls the event determination unit 31a when extracting an event from the event queue 32. Event determination unit 31a
Then, after taking out the event from the event queue 32, the event discard flag 33 is referred to. If the event discard flag 33 is on, the event is discarded as it is and the event monitoring unit 31 is notified that no event has occurred. When the event discard flag 33 is off, the extracted event is returned to the event monitoring unit 31 without changing the event type.

By carrying out this processing, no processing can be performed on the application window 14 while the mail window 13 is displayed. In this way, it is possible to control the discarding of an event and the activation of interrupt processing from outside the window by referring to the event discarding flag 33.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation of the event monitor 31 on the active window side. The operation of the event monitoring unit 31 is as follows:
The operation of a is the main. First, it is checked whether or not there is an interrupt (S1). If there is no interrupt, the event type is set to no event (S2). If there is an interrupt, the event is retrieved from the event queue 32 (S
3).

Next, the interrupt discard flag 33 is taken out (S4). It is determined whether the interrupt discard flag is valid (on) or invalid (off) (S5). If it is invalid,
Set the event type to no event. If it is valid, the content extracted from the queue is set as the event type (S6). Next, the event type is determined (S7), if there is an event, interrupt processing is performed (S8), and the application window 14 is operated.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of a concrete configuration of the mail output waiting device 4. The mail output waiting device 4 takes out the mail from the mailbox 2 and queues it in the mail display queue 62. Then, the program activation monitoring unit 60 is activated and the activation program queue 61 is monitored. The activation program queue 61 queues the program name when the application program is activated.

In the program activation monitoring unit 60, when an event is queued in the activation program queue 61, the event is taken out and the mail display queue 62 is searched for the same program name. When there is a mail having the same program name in the mail display queue 62, the mail is taken out and the mail window generating unit 5 is activated. If the mail does not exist, the event triggered by the program is discarded.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the mail output waiting device 4. First, the program start monitoring unit 6
0 monitors the startup program queue 61 (S1). Then, it is checked whether there is an event (S2).
If there is no event, the process returns to step S1. If there is an event, the program name is extracted from the startup program queue 61 (S3). Next, the mail display queue 62
Is monitored (S4), and it is checked whether there is an event in the mail display queue 62 (S5). If there is no event, the process returns to step S1. If there is an event, it is checked whether the same program name exists in the mail display queue 62 (S6). If not, step S
Return to 1. If there is the same program name, the mail is extracted from the mail display queue 62 (S7), and the mail window generating unit 5 is activated (S8).

In this way, when the application program is activated, by queuing the program name in the activation program queue 61, the mail window 13 can be displayed when the program is activated.

When the destination of the reply mail does not exist on the network, the reply mail is temporarily held in the mailbox 2 and is held in the mail box 2 when it is confirmed that the recipient is connected to the network. Be sure to reply to the reply emails. This makes it possible to reliably reply the reply mail to the other party.

[0036]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, in the multi-window environment, the sending side adds the priority type and the program name executed by the receiving side to the electronic mail, and the sending side sends the electronic mail. By configuring the mail priority determination device 3 to determine its priority and determine whether the received email is urgent and whether a reply is required, the email is assured immediately before using the program. It is possible to provide a mail display device which can be shown to the user and can be surely sent a reply to it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a format example of a priority-added mail.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of a mail priority determination device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a mail window.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of an event monitoring device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation of an event monitoring unit on the mail window side.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of an event monitoring unit on the application window side.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of a mail output standby device.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the mail output standby device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 mail receiving part 2 mail box 3 mail priority determining device 4 mail output standby device 5 mail window generating part 6 display device 7 event monitoring device 8 reply mail editing part 9 reply mail sending part

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshihiro Sumiya 3-9-18 Shin-Yokohama, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Fujitsu Communication Systems Ltd. (72) Inventor Go Hatanaka 3 Shin-Yokohama, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Inc. 9-18 FUJITSU Communication Systems Limited (72) Inventor Masatoshi Tozaki 3-9-18 Shin-Yokohama, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inc. Fujitsu Communication Systems KK (72) Inventor Minoru Shimizu Kanagawa 3-9-18 Shin-Yokohama, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi Fujitsu Communication Systems Limited

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A mail receiving unit (1) for receiving an electronic mail from another terminal, and a mailbox (2) for holding the received electronic mail.
Then, the contents of the mailbox (2) are checked to determine whether the received e-mail is urgent and whether a reply is required, and a mail priority determination device (3) and the program to be prioritized is started. If not,
A mail output standby device (4) that monitors the start-up of the program, a mail window creation unit (5) that creates a window for displaying the contents of the sent email and entering a reply email, and various information Display device capable of multi-window display (6)
And an event monitoring device (7) for displaying the window created by the mail window generating unit (5) as active on the display device (6) and not ending the window display until the reply is completed, A mail display device comprising a reply mail editing unit (8) for taking in the character string input by the mail window creating unit (5) as a reply mail, and a reply mail sending unit (9) for sending the reply mail. 2. In a multi-window environment, the sending side adds an email with a priority type and a program name that gives priority to the display on the receiving side, and sends it, and the receiving side mail priority judging device (3) gives the priority. 2. The mail display device according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether the received electronic mail is urgent and whether a reply is required. 3. The mail priority determination device (3) reads out an electronic mail from the mailbox (2) and compares the priority of a program running on the receiving side with a program added to the electronic mail. The mail display device according to claim 1, wherein the priority order is determined accordingly. 4. When the mail priority judging device (3) judges that the received electronic mail has a high priority, the mail window generating unit (5) is activated to check the contents of the sent electronic mail. 4. The mail display device according to claim 3, wherein a window for displaying and inputting a reply mail is created, and the event monitoring device (7) activates the window. 5. The mail priority determination device (3) activates a mail output standby device (4) when the received email determines that the received email has a low priority, and monitors activation of a target program. The mail display device according to claim 3, wherein the mail display device is configured as described above. 6. The event monitoring device (7) displays a content of an electronic mail displayed in a multi-window on the display device (6) and a window for inputting a reply mail until the reply to the reply mail is completed. The mail display device according to claim 1, wherein the mail display device is controlled so that it cannot be closed. 7. When the destination of the reply mail does not exist on the network, the reply mail is held in the mailbox (2) and the reply held in the mailbox (2) when the recipient is connected to the network The mail display device according to claim 1, wherein the mail is returned.