JPH10207796A - Method for processing electronic mail - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to easily distinguish a normal electronic mail(E-mail) or the other E-mail by displaying an E-mail judged as a non-normal E-mail in a display format different from that of a normal E-mail. SOLUTION: An E-mail receiver is constituted of a control part 1, a mail receiving part 2, a display control part 3, a display part 4, a data storage part 5, and a program storage part 6. When an E-mail is received, whether the E-mail is a normal E-mail or not is judged by the header information of the received E-mail. When the received E-mail is judged as a non-normal E-mail, the E-mail is displayed in a display format different from that of a normal E-mail. Namely a normal E-mail and a forward (transfer) mail are automatically discriminated, and when the received E-mail is a forward mail, a forward mark is displayed in addition to normal display such as a receiving date and receiving time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an electronic mail processing method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an e-mail service, header information is checked in order to identify what kind of e-mail is received (normal mail, forwarded mail, return mail, automatic forwarded mail, etc.). There is a need to.
This will be explained with automatic forwarding mail. If a user has multiple e-mail accounts (addresses) (one server may have multiple accounts, or multiple servers may have multiple accounts) You need to access your email account directly to see if you have received the email. Since such a process is cumbersome, for example, if you have multiple accounts by specifying as an optional function of the e-mail application that e-mail received by one account is transferred to another account You can even manage your emails as if you had one account. Specifically, an e-mail account to which a certain account is forwarded is set on the server, for example,
Create a file named ".forward" that contains the account to be forwarded to, and when the server for an account receives an e-mail, it will copy all e-mails received to ".f".
orward "can be forwarded to the e-mail account. In this case, the header information does not change, and the header information before transfer is added as it is.

At this time, the forwarded e-mail may be left in the mailbox of the forwarder (the account that performed the forward) or may be deleted.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned e-mail, the normal e-mail sent to this account and the forwarded e-mail are transferred from another account to the mailbox of the account to which the e-mail is forwarded. Forward e-mail is stored. Even if you store the same mail multiple times, the memory is wasted. Therefore, when an e-mail is left at the forward source, it is conceivable to delete the forward e-mail once opened in the mailbox of the forward destination account. However, conventionally, when a user attempts to delete a forwarded e-mail in this way,
There was a problem that it was not easy to distinguish between normal e-mail and forward e-mail. For this reason, there is a problem that the user has to delete the forward e-mail after distinguishing the normal e-mail from the forward e-mail by looking at the header of the e-mail, which is very troublesome. .

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to easily discriminate whether a user is an ordinary e-mail or another e-mail. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for processing e-mail.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic mail processing method according to the present invention comprises a mail receiving step of receiving an electronic mail having header information, and a mail receiving step of receiving the electronic mail having the header information. A judging step of judging whether or not the e-mail is a normal e-mail based on header information of the e-mail; and, if the e-mail is judged not to be a normal e-mail in this judging step, A display step of displaying the mail in a display form different from a normal electronic mail.

That is, in the electronic mail processing method of the present invention, an electronic mail is received, and it is determined whether or not the electronic mail is a normal electronic mail based on header information of the received electronic mail. If it is determined that the e-mail is not a normal e-mail, the e-mail is displayed in a display form different from the normal e-mail.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an e-mail receiving apparatus to which the present invention is applied. A control unit 1 that performs overall control includes a mail receiving unit 2 that receives an external e-mail, an e-mail application, and the like. A program storage unit 6 in which a program defining the operation of the control unit 1 is stored; a data storage unit 5 for storing electronic mail data received via the mail receiving unit 2 and management information of the received mail; A display unit for displaying data stored in the data storage unit under the control of the display control unit;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data structure of the management information of the received mail in the data storage unit 5 in FIG. 1, and includes header information (To: (required) destination address / Fr) added to the electronic mail.
om: (Required) Sender address / Cc: (Optional) Broadcast destination address / Subject: (Optional) Title / Date:
(Required) Calling date / Message-ID: (Required) ID / Receive
d: (optional) communication route / Bcc: (optional) broadcast destination address (delete when receiving) / Fcc: (optional) copy / Reply -To: (optional) reply-to / Return-Path: (optional) reply address / Sender: (optional) true sender / In-Reply-To: (optional) sender of original mail, date / time, etc. (when replying) / X-*****: (optional) user defined (**** * Is determined by the user)
And at least the transmission date and time 10, the reception date and time 11, the forward flag 12, the sender name 13, and the title 1
4 and the like. Here, the forward flag 12
Is cleared to zero for normal e-mail, and is set to "1" for forward e-mail.

FIG. 3 shows a processing flow when receiving a mail.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, for example, the user has a first account (address) and a second account (address), and forwards an e-mail received at the second address to the first address, as in the prior art, as in the prior art. Forward setting. In the mail application of the first account, it is assumed that the e-mail address (second address) that has been forwarded is registered in advance by the user.

In step S1, a processing flow is first started,
The mail box of the first address is searched at predetermined time intervals, and it is confirmed whether or not there is a received e-mail. If there is a received e-mail, the e-mail is received via the mail receiving unit 2 (step S2). Next, the content of “To:” (destination) of the header added to the received e-mail is confirmed (step S3), and this content matches the address (second address) registered in advance by the user. It is determined whether or not to perform (step S4). Here "Y ES"
In this case, it is determined that the mail is forward mail, and the forward flag 12 of the management information is set to "1". Next, the process proceeds to step S7 to create received mail management information. That is, predetermined items are written from the header information of the received e-mail to the corresponding items of the received mail management information in FIG.

If the address does not match the address registered in advance in step S4, it is determined that the mail is a normal mail. Therefore, the forward flag 12 is cleared to zero (step S5), and thereafter, management information of the received mail is created. (Step S7).

Next, a processing flow for displaying a list of received mails on the display unit 4 will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. First, in step S11, a list display processing flow is started, and the received mail management information is read (step S12). Next, the state of the forward flag 12 of the read management information is checked (step S1).
3) If the forward flag 12 is set to "1", a forward mark indicating forward mail is highlighted (step S14), and a sender name, a title, and the like are displayed (step S15). .

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which received mails are displayed in a list by the above-described method. In the inbox 15, the e-mails in each line are composed of the reception date 11, the reception time 12, the sender name 13, and the title 14, In the forward mail 9, “F” is displayed in reverse as a forward mark 10 at the head of each line, and such a display is not made in the normal mail 8.

According to the above-described first embodiment, a normal e-mail and a forward mail are automatically discriminated, and if the mail is a forward mail, the reception date 11, the reception time 12, the sender name 13, In addition to the normal display of title 14,
Since the forward mark is displayed, the user can easily distinguish ordinary e-mail from forward e-mail.

A modification of the first embodiment will be described below. Although the first embodiment has been described assuming forward from one mail account (second address), a plurality of forward marks indicating forward mail are registered in consideration of forwards from a plurality of mail accounts. Is also good. In this case, the setting value of the forward flag may be, for example, “0” for a normal electronic mail, “1” for forward 1, and “2” for forward 2. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, the display of the inbox 15 is that the forward mark is not displayed when the forward flag is "0" because of normal mail, and is forward 1 when the forward flag is "1". Is displayed, and a forward mark 10 'of "F1" indicating that the forward flag is "2" is displayed when the forward flag is "2".
Is displayed, the forward mark 10 'of "F2" is displayed. This allows the user to easily know where the electronic mail was forwarded from.

Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The processing flow at the time of mail reception in the second embodiment is the same as the processing flow in FIG. 3 of the first embodiment,
In the second embodiment, a normal e-mail inbox and a forward e-mail inbox are separately prepared in the data storage unit 5, and the received e-mail is displayed on the display unit 4 by the following method.
In the list.

FIG. 7 shows a processing flow for displaying a list of received mails in the second embodiment. First, in step S31, a list display processing flow is started, and the received mail management information is read (step S3).
2). Next, the forward flag 1 of the read management information
2 is checked (step S33), and if the forward flag 12 is set to "1", the sender name, title, etc. are displayed in the forward mail inbox (step S34) and cleared to zero. If so, the sender's name, title, and the like are displayed in the usual e-mail inbox (step S35).

The above processing is performed until the received mail management information ends and the judgment in step S36 becomes YES.
The process ends (step S37). FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which received mails are displayed in a list according to the display method described above. As shown in FIG.
5A and a forward mail inbox 15B are separately displayed by dividing the display screen, and in each inbox, a reception date 11, a reception time 12, a sender name 13, and a title 14 are sequentially displayed for each mail. ing.

According to the second embodiment, it is automatically determined whether the mail is a normal electronic mail or a forward mail.
Since it is displayed in a separate inbox provided in advance according to the determination result, even if a mark etc. is not displayed on the forward mail, the user can easily distinguish ordinary e-mail from forward mail. it can.

Hereinafter, a modification of the second embodiment will be described.
Although the second embodiment has been described assuming forward from one mail account, a plurality of forward marks indicating forward mail may be registered in consideration of forwards from a plurality of mail accounts. In this case, as the set value of the forward flag, for example, "0" may be used for a normal e-mail, "1" for forward 1, and "2" for forward 2,
The display of the inbox 15B for the forward mail may be performed by referring to the display of FIG. As a result, the user can easily know from where the message has been forwarded. Further, an inbox may be provided for each of a plurality of forwards.

In the second embodiment, the mail is managed using one piece of received mail management information. However, each of ordinary electronic mail and forward mail may have management information. That is, management information for normal electronic mail and management information for forward mail may be created.

Hereinafter, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the first and second embodiments, a forward is set in the server as in the prior art, and automatic transfer is realized. However, in the third embodiment, a mail application automatically transfers received mail by a transfer function. It will be realized. In this case, header information indicating a forward mail is newly added as a transmission type to the header of the e-mail to be automatically transferred (Forward: forward information is defined as user-defined information of the header information).

Hereinafter, the processing flow will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The setting as to whether or not to perform automatic transfer is made by the user in advance together with the transfer (forward) destination.
First, in step S41, a mail application is started with a predetermined account, and an e-mail is received via the mail receiving unit 2 (step S42). Next, a mail account of the received e-mail is determined (step S43), and it is determined whether automatic forwarding (forward) is set (step S44). Here, if the setting has not been made, a notification is received indicating that a normal e-mail has been received (step S45), and the process ends (step S45).
48).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S44 that the forward setting has been made, a header 'Forward' indicating a forward is newly added to the header of the electronic mail (step S46). That is, Forward: [forwarding email address] Next, the T of the email with the header 'Forward' added
O: The destination is rewritten to the transfer address and transmitted (transferred) (step S47), and the process ends (step S48).

At the transfer destination, the e-mail application checks the header of the received e-mail,
If the ard 'header is present and the forward source email address is also specified, it is determined that the email is a forward email. Then, by using the display method described in the first or second embodiment, a normal electronic mail and a forward mail are distinguished and displayed.

As described above, in the third embodiment, for those for which automatic transfer is set by the electronic mail application, a 'Forward' header is added to the header of the electronic mail so as to be distinguished from ordinary electronic mail. I have. In other words, the forward source email address is 'hi-negi@casiogw.rd.casio.co.jp' and the forward destination email address is'hi-negi@comlab.rd.casio.co.j
p, the 'To:' header contains' To: hi-
Even if it is written as "neggi", the email address forwarded by the forward setting will have a "Forward" header added to the forward source email address, so the email application will forward the email to the normal email And can be easily distinguished.

In each of the above embodiments, automatic transfer (forward) mail has been described. However, transfer and return mail can be similarly performed. That is, in the first and second embodiments, the subject is determined by the transfer and return identifier (FW :, RE :) added to the subject and displayed. In the third embodiment, it is only necessary to newly provide header information for identifying the transmission type or return of the header information.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the user can easily distinguish ordinary e-mail from forward e-mail.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an e-mail receiving device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data configuration of management information of a received mail.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a processing flow at the time of receiving a mail in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing flow when a list of received mails is displayed on a display unit in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which received mails are displayed in a list according to the processing flow shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which a list of received mails is displayed in a modification of the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing flow when displaying a list of received mails according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which received mail is displayed in a list according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Control part, 2 ... Email receiving part, 3 ... Display control part, 4 ...
Display unit, 5: data storage unit, 6: program storage unit.

Claims (7)

[Claims] An e-mail receiving step of receiving an e-mail having header information; and determining whether the received e-mail is a normal e-mail based on the header information of the e-mail received in the e-mail receiving step. And a display step of displaying the e-mail in a display form different from a normal e-mail when it is determined that the e-mail is not a normal e-mail in the judgment step. An e-mail processing method, comprising: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining step determines whether the electronic mail is an automatic transfer mail. 3. The electronic mail processing method according to claim 1, wherein said display step displays a plurality of transfer sources in different display forms. 4. When it is determined that the e-mail is not a normal e-mail, the display step adds a specific mark to the e-mail so that the e-mail is displayed separately from the normal e-mail. 2. The method for processing an electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein 5. The electronic mail processing method according to claim 1, wherein the displaying step displays the normal electronic mail and the other electronic mails separately in a divided display area. . 6. When transmitting an electronic mail, an adding step of adding transmission type information to header information of the electronic mail, and a transmitting step of transmitting the electronic mail to which the header information is added in the adding step. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: 7. The electronic mail processing method according to claim 6, wherein the determining step determines whether or not the electronic mail is a normal electronic mail by determining transmission type information of header information.