JPH11215337A - Facsimile equipment and facsimile communication method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a fault report flexibly at the occurrence of a fault in facsimile transmission in a mail system, where the facsimile equipment sends the contents of a mail. SOLUTION: A server receives an electronic mail for facsimile transmission from a client, extracts a fault notice destination in a mail main text, and stores it to a storage area of a facsimile service control section 39. A transmission document conversion section 35 of the server expands contents of the mail into an image and a facsimile modem 37 makes transmission. At the occurrence of a fault, a facsimile service conversion section 39 generates a mail to notify of a fault content. A fault notice destination is stored in a storage area of the facsimile service control section 39, and a fault notice using the fault notice destination is conducted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile transmission technique for facsimile transmitting a mail created in an electronic mail environment to an external facsimile machine using a facsimile server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mail system connected to a LAN or WAN sends and receives mails using addresses on the LAN or WAN. The mail system is, for example, S
It is realized by an MTP server or a POP server. By using such a mail system, a text document conventionally transmitted / received by a facsimile apparatus can be easily transmitted only by operating a client terminal. By the way, when the recipient of the mail does not have an account of the mail system or when the mail systems are not connected to each other, the mail cannot be transmitted. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the facsimile transmission as before. Therefore,
Integrate facsimile system into email system,
For recipients who cannot transmit by e-mail, a system for facsimile transmitting the image data of the e-mail to the facsimile apparatus of the recipient is also provided. In such an integrated system, it is possible to save the trouble of transmitting one using a mail system and transmitting the other using a facsimile machine according to the destination.

When a mail transmission failure occurs in the mail system, a failure report mail or the like is transmitted to a destination (sender) corresponding to the content of the failure using the destination information of the mail. Then, in the case of facsimile transmission, it may be desired to transmit a failure report mail or the like to a specially designated destination. In this case, a desired failure report cannot be made unless a specially designated destination can be designated by the mail address information.

[0004] Prior art documents related to the present invention include Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 7-143309 and 8-1994.
No. 9129. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 7-143309 discloses a technique for extracting a facsimile telephone number when it is entered in a destination field of the e-mail and facsimile transmitting the e-mail. Also,
JP-A-8-9129 discloses a technique for extracting a destination display included in a document to be transmitted by facsimile and facsimile transmitting the document based on the destination display.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a flexible system for reporting a failure when a failure occurs in facsimile transmission in a mail system capable of facsimile transmission of mail contents. It is intended to be able to do so.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in a facsimile apparatus for facsimile-transmitting a mail transmitted using an electronic mail system, the facsimile apparatus is determined in advance by the specifications of the electronic mail system. The address information input in the input field and the information in the mail text are selected as the destination information according to the situation.

[0007] According to this configuration, arbitrary address information (e-mail address, telephone number, etc.) can be used in addition to the address information input according to the mail system-specific specifications. Can deal flexibly.

[0008] The present invention can also be realized as a method or a computer program product.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In this embodiment, facsimile transmission is performed using an electronic mail system. The e-mail system may be performed on a closed network such as a LAN, or may be performed on an open network such as the Internet. Since the e-mail system itself is well known, its details will not be described here.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an electronic mail / facsimile system according to this embodiment. In this figure, a plurality of clients 11 and a fax server 12 are connected to a LAN 10. Various other servers are also connected to the LAN 10, but they are not specifically described here. The client 11 is realized by a personal computer, for example. Fax server 12 is telephone line 2
0 has a function of accessing the external facsimile machine 20 via the Internet.

The user of the client 11 can perform facsimile transmission together with electronic mail using the client software of the mail system. FIG. 5 shows a user interface of the mail system.
The user can input the destination indicated by “o” and the source indicated by “From” together with the text to transmit an e-mail and a facsimile. In the case of an e-mail, the destination “aaa @ xx”
Enter the user ID and mail server name in "x". In the case of facsimile transmission, a facsimile telephone number is input as a destination. If the fax server is remote, enter the fax number in "aaa" and enter "xxx"
Enter the fax server name in.

An electronic mail transmission request and a facsimile transmission request from the client 11 are transferred to the mail server and the facsimile server 12, respectively, according to the type of the destination. Of course, one server may constitute the mail server and the fax server.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the functional units of the fax server 12. In this figure, the fax server 12 includes a LAN control unit 30, a client request reception unit 31, a transmission request Reception unit 32, transmission confirmation request reception unit 33, reception display request reception unit 34, transmission document conversion unit 35, document storage unit 36, fax modem 3
7, a received document conversion unit 38 and a fax service control unit 39.

The LAN control unit 30 connects the fax server 12 to the LAN 10. Various requests from the client 11 are received by the client request receiving unit 31 via the LAN 10 and the LAN control unit 30 and sent to the corresponding processing unit. When receiving the fax transmission request from the client 11, the client request reception unit 31 transfers the request to the transmission request reception unit 32. The transmission request receiving unit 32 sends a fax transmission request to the transmission document conversion unit 35. The transmission document conversion unit 35 converts the text data of the transmission content into an image, converts the text data into a document in a page description language, and stores it in the document storage unit 36. And sends it to the fax modem 37 at the same time. The fax modem 37 transmits the image data to the destination facsimile machine 21 via the telephone line 20.

At the time of the above facsimile transmission, log information (transmission destination, transmission source, transmission success, failure, etc.) is stored in the document management unit 3.
Stored at 6.

A facsimile signal sent from an external facsimile apparatus 21 via the telephone line 20 is received by a fax modem 37 and reproduced into image data.
Further, the document is converted into a page description language document by the received document conversion unit 38 and stored in the document storage unit 36.

The reception display request from the client 11 is LA
N10, when sent to the client request receiving unit 31 via the LAN control unit 30, the client request receiving unit 31 sends this request to the reception display request receiving unit 34. Based on the request, the reception display request receiving unit 34 retrieves and retrieves a predetermined reception facsimile document from the document storage unit 36, and transfers it to the requesting client 11.

Further, when a transmission confirmation request is transmitted from the client 11 to the client request reception unit 31 via the LAN 10 and the LAN control unit 30, the client request reception unit 30 transmits this request to the transmission confirmation request reception unit 33. The transmission confirmation request receiving unit 31 searches the log information stored in the document storage unit 36 and returns predetermined communication confirmation data to the client 11.

The fax service control section 38 controls each section of the fax server 12.

The document storage unit 36 holds a facsimile document in a page description language format. As the page description language, for example, a PDF (Portable Document Format) can be used. The facsimile image is stored wrapped in a PDF document.

The user of the client 11 browses or prints a facsimile image sent from the document storage unit 36 by plugging in an Acrbat-Reader (trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc., USA) for PDF processing into a web browser. Or you can.

Next, notification of a facsimile transmission failure will be described.

In this embodiment, when a fax transmission failure occurs, a failure report is basically made to the notification destination address in the mail body as shown in FIG. 5, and if the description of the notification destination address is omitted, the mail is sent. It is assumed that a failure report is made to the transmission source (sender) of. It should be noted that the failure report may be made by e-mail or by facsimile transmission.

FIG. 3 shows a process at the time of facsimile transmission in the fax server 12. The processing at the time of facsimile transmission is as follows.

[Step S11] An e-mail for facsimile transmission is received from the client 11. The telephone number of the call destination is included in the field of the mail destination (“To”).

[Step S12] The failure notification destination in the mail text is extracted. This extraction is based on “! ADDR” in the text.
ESS: ”(FIG. 5). In the example of FIG. 5, "cccc @ yyy".

[Step S13] The contents of the mail are developed into an image using the transmission document conversion unit 35.

[Step S14] The failure notification destination acquired in step S12 is stored in the storage area of the fax service control section 39.

[Step S15] The image created in step 13 is transmitted by the fax modem 37.

FIG. 4 shows the operation of the fax server 12 when a failure occurs. The operation when a failure occurs is performed as follows.

[Step S21] The facsimile service control section 39 creates a mail for notifying the contents of the failure.

[Step S22] The failure notification destination stored in the storage area of the fax service control section 39 in step 14 of FIG. 3 is searched.

[Steps S23, S24, S26] If there is a failure notification destination, the failure notification destination is used as the destination and a failure notification mail is transmitted. If the destination is a facsimile machine, facsimile transmission may be performed. The failure notification mail may be transmitted to the mobile system using the mobile telephone network.

[Steps S23, S25, S26) If the failure notification destination is not stored, the sender of the mail is used as the destination of the failure notification mail, and the failure notification mail is transmitted to this sender.

In the above description, one failure notification destination is included in the mail text. However, failure notification is performed to a plurality of destinations including a plurality of failure notification destinations, or destinations are determined according to the type of failure. May be selected to perform an appropriate failure notification. For example, in the case of a failure in the facsimile transmission itself (such as a failure in the destination facsimile machine), the failure may be notified to the failure notification destination in the mail text, and in other cases, the failure may be notified to the mail sender. .

Although the destination of the facsimile transmission is the telephone number of the called side, if a correspondence table between the user name and the telephone number is provided in a facsimile server or the like and the user name is converted into the telephone number, Facsimile transmission can be performed using a user name. In this case, an identifier indicating facsimile transmission may be added.

The facsimile apparatus (fax server) of the present invention may be arranged not only in a LAN but also in a WAN, may be used as a server on the Internet, or may be used as a server for personal computer communication. Is also good.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a mail system capable of facsimile transmission of mail contents, destination information can be added to the mail text, so that a transmission failure occurs. Can be reported flexibly. Further, when the analysis of the destination information of the mail body fails, the notification can be performed using the normal sender address. Further, it is possible to roughly grasp the location of the occurrence of the failure based on the notification destination of the failure notification.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a fax server according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the fax server.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the fax server.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a failure notification destination.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 LAN 11 client 12 fax server 20 telephone line 21 facsimile machine 30 LAN control unit 31 client request reception unit 32 transmission request reception unit 33 transmission confirmation request reception unit 34 reception display request reception unit 35 transmission document conversion unit 36 document storage unit 37 fax Modem 38 Received document conversion unit 39 Fax service control unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus for facsimile-transmitting an e-mail transmitted using an e-mail system, wherein address information entered in a field predetermined according to the specification of the e-mail system and information in the text of the mail are stored. Facsimile machine to select as destination information according to 2. A means for extracting first destination information input to an e-mail in a mode predetermined according to specifications of an e-mail system, and extracting second destination information described in a text of the e-mail. Means, means for expanding the electronic mail into image data, means for facsimile transmitting the expanded image data to a destination, and when a transmission failure occurs, the first and second destination information are used. Means for selecting predetermined destination information and notifying a failure report using the selected destination information. 3. When a failure related to the facsimile transmission occurs, a failure report is made by using the second destination information, and when another failure occurs, the first destination information is used to make a failure report. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the facsimile apparatus reports a failure. 4. A means for extracting first destination information input in a manner predetermined according to the specification of the electronic mail system; a means for extracting second destination information described in the body of the electronic mail; Means for selecting predetermined destination information from the first destination information and the second destination information when a transmission failure occurs, and notifying a failure report using the selected destination information. Email sending device. 5. A means for extracting first destination information input in a form predetermined according to the specification of an electronic mail system; a means for extracting second destination information described in the body of an electronic mail; Means for selecting predetermined destination information from the first destination information and the second destination information when a transmission failure occurs, and transmitting a predetermined e-mail using the selected destination information. E-mail transmission device characterized by the following. 6. A means for extracting first destination information input in a manner predetermined according to the specification of the electronic mail system, a means for extracting second destination information described in the body of the electronic mail, Means for expanding the e-mail into image data, means for facsimile transmitting the expanded image data to a destination, and when a transmission failure occurs, a predetermined destination is determined from the first destination information and the second destination information. Means for selecting information and notifying a failure report using the selected destination information. 7. A step of extracting the first destination information input to the e-mail in a mode predetermined according to the specification of the e-mail system, and extracting the second destination information described in the text of the e-mail. A step of expanding the e-mail into image data; a step of facsimile transmitting the expanded image data to a destination; and a step in which, when a transmission failure occurs, the first destination information and the second destination information. Selecting predetermined destination information and notifying a failure report using the selected destination information. 8. A step of extracting the first destination information input to the e-mail in a mode predetermined according to the specification of the e-mail system, and extracting the second destination information described in the body of the e-mail. A step of expanding the e-mail into image data; a step of facsimile transmitting the expanded image data to a destination; and a step in which, when a transmission failure occurs, the first destination information and the second destination information. Selecting a predetermined destination information and notifying a failure report using the selected destination information to cause the computer to execute the same.