JPH088967A - Circulation main management method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent delay in the circulation by using circulation management information so as to allow a server to manage a circulation mail within prescribed time limits. CONSTITUTION:At first a client 3-1 generates a circulation mail 7 and sends it to a mail box 5 of a server 1, then the server 1 stores circulation management information 8 and a copied circulation mail 7* to a memory 6. The circulation mail is sent to a succeeding client 3-2. Then the circulation management information 8 is referenced by the server 1 and when the circulation mail is returned from the client 3-2, the circulation mail is sent to a succeeding client 3-3. Moreover, when the circulation mail is not returned by the termination time, the copied circulation mail 7* is sent to the succeeding client 3-3 without awaiting the return to prevent delay in the circulation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a circulation mail management method for automatically managing a deadline when circulation is performed using electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electronic mail is widely used for exchanging messages between computers. As a method of managing the electronic mail, there are a method of managing the electronic mail individually for each computer, and a method of managing a plurality of clients for exchanging the electronic mail, and the server collectively managing the sending and receiving of the electronic mail. In the former method, each computer sends an e-mail to the mailbox of the destination computer after composing the e-mail. Each computer constantly monitors the emails stored in its mailbox and notifies the operator when new emails are accepted. On the other hand, in the latter method, the electronic mail is always sent from the client to the server, and the server sends the electronic mail to the corresponding client according to the destination information added to the electronic mail.

[0003]

The conventional mail management method as described above has the following problems to be solved. For example, when using an electronic mail to circulate a certain document and make an approval, the electronic mail must be transmitted and transferred to each computer on a certain schedule. However, if the operator of each computer is left to manage the deadline, a situation may occur in which the necessary deadline is exceeded and an important decision cannot be made in time. There is not a small number of requests to circulate this kind of circulation processing to a plurality of destinations in order on a fixed schedule, not limited to approval.

[0004]

The present invention adopts the following constitution in order to solve the above points. The server receives the circulation mail from the client and transmits the circulation mail to another client to circulate the electronic mail between the clients. The circulation mail includes each client address of the circulation destination and circulation management information indicating the circulation deadline to each of these clients. The server holds the circulation management information for each circulation mail and the copied circulation mail separately from the legitimate circulation mail transmitted.
Monitor the circulation deadline. When the circulation deadline is reached, the copied circulation mail is transmitted to the corresponding circulation destination client unless the circulation mail is sent to the corresponding client before the circulation deadline.

[0005]

First, when the client creates a circulation mail and sends it to the mailbox of the server, the server holds the circulation management information and the copied circulation mail in the memory. The circular mail is sent to the next client. After that, the server refers to the circulation management information, and when the circulation mail is returned from the client, the circulation mail is transmitted to the next client. If the circulation mail is not returned by the deadline, the copied circulation mail is sent to the next client to prevent the circulation delay.

[0006]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system block diagram for implementing the method of the present invention. In this system, a server 1 is connected to clients 3-1, 3-2, 3-3 via a communication line 2 and manages electronic mail between these clients. Each client 3-1, 3-2, 3
-3 has mailboxes 4-1, 4-2, 4 respectively.
-3 is provided. Further, the server 1 is provided with a mailbox 5 for the server 1. Further, the server 1 is connected to a memory 6 for storing various kinds of information described later. On the other hand, for example, client 3
The circulation mail 7 created by -1 is, as shown in the figure, circulation management information 8 and a mail body 9 for explaining specific contents later.
And

This circular mail 7 is sent to the client 3-1.
Transmits to the mailbox 5 of the server 1 as indicated by arrow L1. The server 1 recognizes the circulation mail 7 and, after a certain process described later, transmits it to the mailbox 4-2 of the destination client 3-2 as indicated by an arrow L2.
When the client 3-2 finishes processing the circulation mail, the mail box 5 of the server 1 is processed as indicated by an arrow L3.
Reply to. The server 1 again sends the circular mail to the arrow L.
Then, the data is transmitted to the next destination client 3-3 as shown in FIG. When the circulation mail is stored in the mailbox 4-3 of the client 3-3, the client 3-3 processes the circulation mail and returns it to the mailbox 5 of the server 1 as indicated by an arrow L5. The e-mail is circulated by the above procedure. In order to manage the circulation standard of the electronic mail, the server 1 circulates and holds the circulation management information 8 and the copied circulation mail 7 * in the memory 6.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a concrete configuration example of the client. The client 3 includes, for example, a circulation mail editing unit 11 and a circulation mail transmitting unit 1 as shown in FIG.
2 and an arrival mail processing unit 13. The circulation mail editing unit 11 is composed of a word processor, a personal computer, or the like, and has a document creating function for creating a circulation mail described later. The circulation mail transmitting unit 12 is a portion having a communication control function of transmitting the circulation mail to a communication line in a predetermined format. The arrival mail processing unit 13 detects the mail arriving in the mailbox,
It is a part for reading it and controlling the necessary processing. The details of this control will be described later.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a specific configuration example of the server. The server 1 includes an arrival mail processing unit 14, a circulation deadline monitoring unit 15, and a mail transfer processing unit 16.
The arrival mail processing unit 14 is a part that scans the mailbox, extracts the arrival mail, and advances the subsequent processing. This operation and the like will be described in detail later. The circulation deadline monitoring unit 15 is a portion that uses the circulation management information provided for the circulation mail to perform monitoring processing so that the circulation is transmitted to the corresponding client within a predetermined deadline. The mail transfer processing unit 16 is a part that performs processing for transmitting the received circulation mail to the corresponding client.

The client and server shown in FIG. 1 are specifically constituted by the parts having the above-mentioned functions. Each of these parts is composed of an input / output device, a certain processing control program, and the like.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the structure of the circulation mail. The circulation mail 7 is configured as shown in this figure, for example. That is, the circulation mail 7 includes circulation management information 8 indicating the attribute of the mail and a mail body 9. In the circulation management information 8, for example, as shown in this figure, the sender,
Address, subject etc. are included. Further, the mail additional information includes a mail ID, an expiration date, an address, a circulation deadline, and the like. The sender means a sender who creates and sends this mail body 9. The destination indicates the final destination of the circular mail. The subject is the content of the mail body 9 such as a request for approval for purchasing equipment.

[0012] The mail ID is blank at the stage of creating this circulation mail in the client, and when the server receives this circulation mail 7 for the first time, a code for identifying each circulation mail is generated from the date and time of its reception. Then
This is the mail ID. The expiration date is a period indicating the validity of this circulation mail itself, and thereafter, the circulation mail is excluded from the management target, as described later. The address is
If there are multiple circulation destinations as shown in the figure, the address A
1, address A2, etc., which indicates the mail address of the client of the circulation destination. The circulation deadline is
It is composed of dates that indicate when the circulation should be done.

That is, the circulation mail 7 is circulated in turn to each client of each address as shown in the mail additional information at each circulation deadline. Based on such circulation management information 8, the server manages the deadline of circulation mail. For example, when the client 3-1 shown in FIG. 1 creates the circulation mail 7 as described above and sends it to the mailbox 5 of the server 1, the server 1 generates a circulation management information table for the circulation mail.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the circulation management information table. For example, as shown in this figure, the circulation mail described with reference to FIG. 4 has a mail ID of "931213175.
0 ". This is 17:50 on December 13, 1993.
Minutes I received an email automatically generated I
It is D. This mail ID is for identifying each circulation mail, and when the next new circulation mail is received, another mail ID is added. Then, expiration dates, client addresses of circulation destinations, circulation deadlines, and the like are provided for the number of circulation destination clients, and are tabulated as shown in the figure.

When mail management is performed using the circulation management information as described above, new management information is added and managed as follows, for example. 6 (a) and 6 (b),
It is a content explanatory view of management information. (A) shows a specific example of the mail ID described above. That is, the newly circulated mail newly created by the client and stored in the mailbox of the server has no mail ID and is unregistered. In addition to the above, there is a case in which the information has been circulated to the corresponding destination and returned to the server. A mail ID has already been added to the circular mail returned from the recipient.

Further, (b) shows an explanatory view of the flag for each client of each circulation destination shown in FIG. This flag is added to each client to distinguish whether the mail has been circulated, has been circulated, has not been circulated, or the like. By using such a flag, the circulation deadline can be smoothly managed.

That is, a flag having not been circulated indicates that the flag has not been circulated. In this case, the circulation mail can be sent to the corresponding client. In addition, “circulating” means that a circulation mail has been transmitted to the client and is currently waiting for the circulation mail to be returned from the client. Therefore, when the circulation mail is transmitted to the client, the flag changes from the uncirculated state to the circulating state. Then, the circulation deadline management is focused on those during circulation. The word “circulated” indicates that the circulation has been completed, and when the circulation mail is returned, the flag “circulated” is changed to the flag “circulated”. From this, it can be seen that the circulation has been completed normally. If all circulation destinations have a flag indicating that they have been circulated, then the expiration date is monitored and certain management is performed.

The present invention is implemented as follows using the system configured as described above. FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the transmission / reception operation of the circulation mail. First, the circulation mail is
As a whole, the processing is performed as shown in this flowchart. In step S1, the client creates a circulation mail. This is optionally done by any of the clients that make up the system.

Next, when the circulation mail is received by the server, the server gives a mail ID and creates circulation management information in step S2. The contents are as described above. Next, in step S3, the server transmits the circulation mail to the corresponding client of the destination. That is, the circulation mail is transmitted to the client which is the first circulation destination entered in the mail additional information of the circulation mail. Then, in step S4, the server starts monitoring the circulation deadline. The circulation is normally returned from the client to the server within the deadline. The server executes the reception and transmission processing of the circulation mail in step S5. This shows the processing of transmitting the returned circular mail to the next client. Then, in step S6,
It is determined whether or not all circulations have been completed, and if not completed, the process returns to step S4 again to execute circulation deadline management.

FIG. 8 shows a processing flowchart of the received circulation mail. When the server receives the circulation mail, the processing for the circulation mail is executed by the procedure shown in this figure. First, in step S1, the server scans its own mailbox. Normally, when sending and receiving electronic mail, mutual notification of sending and receiving of electronic mail is not made. That is, by sending an e-mail to a mailbox, the receiving computer scans the mailbox and automatically detects the arrival of the e-mail.
In this scanning, for example, it is checked whether or not there is an increase in new files as compared with the file list when the file list in the memory storing the e-mail is scanned immediately before.

Here, when the arrival of the circulation mail is detected in step S2, it is determined whether the mail is new.
If it is a new circulation mail, move to step S3,
Add a mail ID. The description of this mail ID is as already described using FIG. Next, step S
In 4, the circulation management information described in FIG. 5 is created.
Then, in step S5, the circulation mail is copied and stored in the memory 6 shown in FIG. This is to make it possible for the server to recognize the status of the circulation mail currently being circulated, and the processing such as returning the circulation mail from the client normally and sending it to the next client. It is not necessary if is continued. However, if the circulation mail does not return even after the circulation deadline has passed, the copied circulation mail is read and transmitted to another client.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2 that it is not a new arrival, the process proceeds to step S6, and the circulation management information is updated. That is, when the circulation mail is returned, the flag for the client that has been circulated up to now transits from the circulation state to the circulation completed state, as described above. In step S6, the data in such circulation management information is updated, and in step S7,
Update the copied circular mail. The copied circulation mail may also have various information added by the client by circulation. It should be noted that this may be circulation management information or a mail text.

FIG. 9 shows a flow chart of the circulation mail transmission processing. The server sends the circular mail by the procedure shown in this figure. When the circulation is received in step S1, the circulation management table is scanned in step S2. That is, such scanning is performed in order to recognize the mail ID of the received circulation mail and refer to the circulation management information for the circulation mail having the mail ID. Then, in step S3, a flag indicating that circulation is in progress is detected from the circulation management information. If the client corresponding to the flag being circulated matches the client that received the circulation mail this time, the flag being circulated is switched to the flag being circulated and updated (step S4).

Next, in step S5, the circulation management information is referred to again to check whether there is a portion having an uncirculated flag. Since the circulation order of circulation mails is specified in advance, the client address that has the flag of uncirculated next to the client address that has been updated from circulation to circulation is the address to which the circulation mail should be sent next. Becomes In step S6, this client address is acquired, and in step S7, a circulation mail is transmitted. In this way, the circulation mail is transmitted.

FIG. 10 shows a circulation deadline management flowchart. The following is a description of a flow chart showing how the server executes the circulation deadline management of the present invention. First, in step S1 of FIG. 10, the server acquires date data. This is processed by referring to the clock or the like of the system. Next, in step S2, the circulation deadline of the circulation management table is scanned. That is, the circulation deadline for each client in the circulation management table described above with reference to FIG. 5 is sequentially scanned. Then, it detects those that are in circulation and have reached the circulation deadline. If not, the process ends, but if there is, in step S4,
Determine if there are any uncirculated clients.

If there is no circulation, the circulation has already been completed, and therefore no processing is performed on the circulation deadline management. If there is an uncirculated one, the process moves to step S5 to obtain the next client address. This can be done by referring to the client address having the flag of uncirculated. Then, since the returned circular mail does not exist, the memory 6
The copied circulation mail 7 * held in is read and transmitted to the corresponding client (step S6).
By doing so, even if the circulation mail being circulated to a certain client does not return by the deadline, the circulation mail can be transmitted to the next client within the necessary deadline.

It should be noted that a client that has not returned a circulation mail even after the circulation deadline has passed, for example, sends a notification that the circulation mail has been transmitted to the next client without waiting for a reply. As a result, the operator of the client can take appropriate measures for the circulation mail.

FIG. 11 shows an expiration date management flowchart. The circular mail as described above is usually unnecessary after the circulation is completed. In particular, if the content of the circulation is related to an event or the like held on a certain date, naturally the expiration date is clearly defined. Therefore, such circulation mail becomes unnecessary after the expiration date. Moreover, if such a circular mail is still stored in the memory, the area of the memory where the data can be stored freely is reduced. Therefore, such a circulation mail is managed by the processing shown in FIG. That is, first in step S1, the server acquires date data, and in step S2, scans the expiration date of the circulation management table. Then, in step S3, the expiration date is detected, and if there is an expiration date, the circulation management information is deleted in step S4. Further, in step S5, the corresponding copied circulation mail is deleted. In this way,
The server excludes circular emails whose expiration date has passed from management.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. In the above embodiment, the client and the server are connected via the communication line, and the server manages the electronic mail of the client. However, the present invention does not always clearly distinguish the client and the server. It is not limited to existing ones. For example, there is a part that performs a client-like operation and a part that performs a server-like operation in one personal computer, and the same applies to a system that performs similar circular mail processing. Also,
The transmission of the circulation management information from the client to the server was executed by including the circulation management information portion in the document of the circulation mail so as to be distinguishable from the mail body. However, any format may be used as long as the circulation management information can be generated in another suitable format and transmitted / received by e-mail.

The circulation order of the circulation mail may be indicated in advance in the circulation management information by entering the client address and the circulation deadline in the same order as the circulation order. May be numbered, or the circulation order may be determined from the circulation deadline. Therefore, the order of entering the client address and the like in the circulation management information may be arbitrary.

[0031]

According to the circulation mail management method of the present invention described above, the circulation mail includes the circulation management information indicating each client address of the circulation destination and the circulation deadline to each client address, and the legitimate information transmitted by the server is confirmed. Except when the circulation management information for each circulation mail and the copied circulation mail are kept separately from the circulation mail, the circulation deadline is monitored, and a valid circulation mail is sent to the applicable client before the circulation deadline. When the circulation deadline is reached, the copied circulation mail is transmitted to the corresponding client of the circulation destination, so that the circulation mail is automatically transmitted to the corresponding client according to the circulation deadline.

When the circulation deadline is reached, the circulation management information includes information indicating the circulation processing status that distinguishes whether the circulation mail has not been circulated, is being circulated, or has been circulated. It becomes possible to send the circular mail to the client of the next circular destination. Further, by including the expiration date in the circulation mail, it is possible to control the circulation mail by excluding the circulation mail from the management target after the expiration date.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a system block diagram for implementing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a specific configuration example of a client.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a specific configuration example of a server.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration example of a circulation mail.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a circulation management information table.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of contents of management information.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an operation of transmitting and receiving a circulation mail.

FIG. 8 is a processing flowchart of a received circulation mail.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a circulation mail transmission process.

FIG. 10 is a circulation deadline management flowchart.

FIG. 11 is an expiration date management flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 server 2 communication line 3-1 to 3-3 client 4-1 to 4-3, 5 mailbox 7 circulation mail 8 circulation management information

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI Technical display area H04L 12/28

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A server which receives a circulation mail from a client and sends the circulation mail to another client so as to circulate an electronic mail between the clients, wherein the circulation mail includes each circulation destination. The client address and the circulation management information indicating the circulation deadline to each client are included, and the server stores the circulation management information for each circulation mail and the copied circulation mail separately from the legitimate circulation mail sent. When the circulation deadline expires, the copied circulation mail is sent to the corresponding circulation destination client, unless the circulation deadline is sent and the legitimate circulation mail is sent to the corresponding client before the circulation deadline. Circular mail management method characterized by the following. 2. The circulation management information includes information indicating the client address of the circulation destination, the circulation deadline, and the circulation processing status. When the server has not yet transmitted the circulation mail to the corresponding client, the circulation processing status. Is not circulated, and the circulation processing status is being circulated when the circulation mail is sent to the corresponding client but has not been replied yet. 2. The circulation mail management method according to claim 1, wherein the copied circulation mail is transmitted to the client of the corresponding circulation destination when the processing status is in circulation and the circulation deadline has expired. 3. The circulation mail includes the final expiration date of the circulation mail, and the server monitors the circulation management information and excludes the circulation mail having the final expiration date from management targets. The method for managing circulation mail according to claim 1.