KR100433103B1 - Apparatus and method for providing e-mail platform - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for supporting an e-mail platform that matches a user's taste with an agent program on a user's computer and supporting the added agent's e-mail platform to be added to the e-mail contents transmitted by the downloaded agent program. It is about. An apparatus for providing an e-mail platform according to the present invention includes a web server including a user register that receives user information and registers and downloads an agent program to a computer of a registered user; An agent server having a login processing unit configured to receive login information from an agent program and authenticating a user, an e-mail platform selecting unit for selecting an e-mail platform that the user wants to download, and an e-mail platform downloading unit for delivering the e-mail platform selected by the user to the agent program; And an email platform database including an agent program that adds an e-mail platform received from an agent server to the content of an e-mail downloaded to a user's computer and sent by an e-mail client, and an e-mail platform database including a plurality of e-mail platforms and user information for each registered user. And a database server for storing and managing a user database having selection information generated by the email platform selection unit.

According to the present invention, an ordinary user downloads an e-mail platform corresponding to his or her taste and adds it to the e-mail contents he or she writes regardless of the type of e-mail client or web mail service used by the e-mail recipient. Receive email designed as intended.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing e-mail platform

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing an e-mail platform on the Internet. The present invention relates to an e-mail platform downloaded to an e-mail content to which a downloaded agent program is transmitted by downloading an e-mail platform suitable for a user's preference to an user's computer together with an agent program. The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for supporting a transmission by adding a platform.

With the advent of the Internet based on TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), the e-mail service has become the most useful service utilizing the Internet. This email service is used as a means for transmitting messages between remotely located clients in a distributed client / server environment. Traditional e-mail services basically use Post Office Protocol (POP) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to receive messages from the server, and send the message from client to server or from server to another server remote. To do this, it uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). POP, IMAP, and SMTP are all protocols that operate over TCP / IP. These protocols basically use a textual message format and form a packet consisting of a header part, a message body, and an attachment part. In addition, MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is used as a standard for sending and receiving documents other than text.

Meanwhile, with the emergence of a new document sharing service based on the Internet called World-Wide-Web (WWW), the conventional e-mail services have started to be provided on the web. . Web is a service based on HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that runs over TCP / IP. It allows users to access documents provided by a web server through a web browser. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is used as a standard format of documents supported by the web, and an addressing method called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is used to access documents (or services that provide documents) existing on the web. .

In such a web-based e-mail service, a web browser becomes an e-mail client, and the web server is configured to act as an intermediary of a conventional e-mail server. That is, messages received from an E-mail server are all converted to document standards (e.g., HTML) commonly used on the web on a web server, and then accessed or transmitted through a web browser. Web-based email services have exploded in use as they are now available not only to businesses, schools or institutions, but also to end users. Examples include Microsoft's Hotmail service or Daum's Hanmail service.

On the other hand, in the case of an email client such as Outlook Express, an e-mail platform provided is predetermined. In the case of a web mail operated by a web browser such as MS Internet Explorer, the e-mail platform is predetermined by a server providing a web mail service. There are several features that allow you to configure the platform of email that you have created or created by you. In the following, the email platform refers to a list of HTML tags that an email creator uses to wrap the contents of an email written by the email author. The HTML tags included in the email platform may include tags to implement various shapes of designs displayed on the recipient's computer (for example, the design of letter paper used by a specific company) while wrapping the contents of the email written by the email author. have.

However, in general, a user does not use one email client or a web mail service but often uses a plurality of web mail services. According to the conventional method, in this case, a separate email platform for each type of email client or web mail service used by the user must be separately created and a separate email platform must be added each time a mail is sent. You have a burden. In addition, some trends can be applied to the e-mail platform, and it is very cumbersome for a user who is not familiar with the computer to follow the trend and configure his e-mail platform with some functions provided by the web mail server.

The present invention was created to solve the above problems, and provides an email platform providing apparatus and method for supporting an email user to easily express the contents of the email sent by the email user according to their preferences The purpose is to provide.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an email platform providing apparatus according to the present invention and a connection relationship with peripheral devices.

2 is a block diagram of a computer system in which an email platform providing apparatus according to the present invention is implemented.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of providing an email platform according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an operation relationship between an agent program downloaded to a user computer, an e-mail client running on the user computer, and an agent server operating in an e-mail platform providing apparatus.

5 is a diagram for conceptually explaining a process of inserting and sending an email platform when sending an email.

In order to achieve the above object, the email platform providing apparatus according to the present invention receives the user information through the Internet registration process for registration and the agent program stored in the following database server to retrieve and download to the registered user's computer A web server having a program download unit; A login processing unit that receives user login information through the Internet from an agent program downloaded to a user's computer and authenticates the user, and an email platform to select an email platform that a logged-in user wants to download from a plurality of email platforms stored in the following database server. An agent server having a selection unit and an e-mail platform download unit which draws the e-mail platform selected by the logged-in user from the following database server and delivers it to the agent program downloaded to the user's computer via the Internet; An agent program that adds an e-mail platform received from the agent server to the content of an e-mail downloaded and executed by a user's computer, an e-mail platform database having a plurality of e-mail platforms, and a registered user. And a database server that stores and manages a user database having user information and selection information generated by an e-mail platform selecting unit.

In order to achieve another object of the present invention, the method for providing an email platform according to the present invention comprises the steps of: (a) accessing an email platform providing apparatus using a web browser on a user computer and downloading an agent program; (b) logging in to an email platform providing apparatus using an agent program downloaded from a user's computer, and selecting and downloading an email platform which a logged-in user wants to download from among a plurality of email platforms; And (c) the agent program adding and downloading the downloaded email platform to the contents of the email sent by the email client.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

According to FIG. 1, the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention operates by connecting to at least one or more user computers 3 and at least one or more platform designer computers 4 via a network 2.

The network 2 defined in the present invention means a series of nodes or connection points connected to each other by a communication line. The network may be connected to other networks and may include sub-networks. Networks are classified into bus-type, shaping, and ring-type according to their shape and configuration, and classified into LAN (Local Area Network), MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) according to the spatial distance of nodes. . In addition, networks are classified into Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) networks, System Network Architecture (SNA) networks, etc., according to the type of data transmission technology, and dial-up networks, switching networks, dedicated networks, and virtual networks according to conventional access methods. It is classified into an access network and the like, and is classified into an optical fiber network, a coaxial cable network, a copper wire network, etc. according to the type of physical link. In the present invention, the network 2 may include all of the above types, but since it is preferable to use the Internet, which is a computer communication network connecting the world using the TCP / IP protocol, the following description will be made based on this. .

According to Figure 1, one embodiment of the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention comprises a web server 10, an agent server 15 and a database server 20, each of which is connected to each other network It may be implemented as a separate computer system or integrated into one or more computer systems.

According to FIG. 2, the email system providing apparatus 1 or the computer system 5 in which the components thereof are implemented may include at least one central processing unit (CPU) 30, a memory device 35, and an input device. 40, an output device 45 and a network interface 50. The components of computer system 5 are interconnected by at least one bus structure 55.

The illustrated central processing unit 30 is an arithmetic / logical operation unit (ALU) 31 for performing arithmetic and logical operations, a register set 32 for temporarily storing data and instructions, and the operation of the computer system 5. It is provided with a control device 33 for controlling. Since the central processing unit 30 used in the present invention is not limited to a specific structure manufactured by a specific manufacturer, any type of processor having a basic configuration as described above is possible.

The memory device 35 includes a high speed main memory 36 and an auxiliary memory 37 used for long term storage of data. The main memory 36 is composed of a random access memory (RAM) and a read only memory (ROM) semiconductor chip, and the auxiliary memory 37 is a floppy disk, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, a flash memory, and an electric, magnetic, optical Or an apparatus for storing data using another recording medium. In addition, the main memory 36 may include a video display memory (not shown) for displaying an image through the display device. Those skilled in the art will understand that the memory device 35 may include various and replaceable components having various storage capacities.

The input device 40 may include a keyboard, a mouse, a physical transducer (eg, a microphone), and the like, and the output device 45 may include a display, a printer, a physical transducer (eg, a speaker), and the like.

In addition, the network interface 50 may include an Ethernet card for transmitting and receiving data through the Internet 2, a serial / parallel port for connecting to an external system located in a short distance, a universal serial bus (USB) port, or an IEEE1394 port. It can be implemented in a combination of the same devices.

Computer system 5 is equipped with an operating system and at least one application program. An operating system is a set of software that controls the operation of the computer system 5 and the allocation of resources. An application program is a set of software that performs tasks required by a user using computer resources available through the operating system. All of these are stored in the illustrated memory device 35. As a result, the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention is implemented with a computer system 5 having an operating system and one or more application software installed and operated on the computer system 5.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the web server 10 is connected to the user computer 3 via the Internet 2 to receive user information and register as a general member or to the platform designer computer 4 to obtain designer registration information. A program download unit 12 which receives input and registers as a designer member and processes the agent program 21 stored in the database server 20 and downloads it to the computer 3 of the user registered as a general member. And an e-mail platform input unit 13 which receives an e-mail platform created by a platform designer registered as a designer member via the platform designer's computer 4 and delivers it to the database server 20 via the Internet 2. . However, the function of the web server 10 is not limited to the above, and various commodity information, various multimedia information, etc. in accordance with the service provided by the operator of the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention via the Internet (2) Various types of content may be provided.

The agent server 15 receives a login information from the agent program downloaded to the user's computer 3 through the Internet 2 and authenticates the user, and a plurality of emails stored in the database server 20. An email platform selector 17 which presents a list of platforms and their implementations to the logged in user via the user computer 3 and provides selection information for the email platform that the user wishes to download from the user; And an e-mail platform downloader 18 for withdrawing the e-mail platform selected by the database server 20 and downloading the e-mail platform to the user computer 3 via the Internet 2.

The database server 20 also stores and manages the agent program 21, the user database 22, and the email platform database 23. The agent program 21 is downloaded to the user's computer 3 and executed. The agent program 21 adds the e-mail platform received from the agent server 15 to the contents of the e-mail sent while monitoring the operation of an e-mail client (eg, Outlook Express or MS Internet Explorer running Web mail). . The user database 22 stores user information for each registered general member and designer registration information for each registered designer member. The email platform database 23 stores various types of email platforms that the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention can provide to a user who is a member. Accordingly, in the email platform database 23, an email platform created by an operator of the email platform providing apparatus 1 and input by a local input device or an email platform created by a professional designer and input through an email platform input unit 13 is input. The platform is saved.

Meanwhile, the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention further includes a functional module for processing a reward for a platform designer uploading an email platform, and a functional module for receiving a payment to a user who downloads the email platform. May be included. However, since these functions can be similarly applied to the functions generally used in other business inventions via the Internet 2, the detailed description thereof will be omitted in the description of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an e-mail platform providing process according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3.

First, in the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention, an email platform database 23 should be constructed as described above (S100). Hereinafter, the process of building an email platform database by an email platform produced by a professional email platform designer will be described.

In order for the platform designer to upload his / her e-mail platform to the e-mail platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention, the platform designer must be registered as a designer member. To this end, the platform designer first uses a web browser such as Netscape Navigate, Internet Explorer, etc., installed on his computer 4, on the World Wide Web (WWW) of the web server 10 of the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention. ). At this time, the platform designer may enter the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the web server 10 in a web browser, use a predetermined search engine, or access the web server 10 through a hyperlink on another web page. . When the platform designer's computer 4 is connected to the web server 10, the web server 10 provides the initial screen of the homepage and the designer registration screen to the platform designer's computer 4 to induce registration as a designer member. . Accordingly, the platform designer inputs designer registration information such as member identifier, password, name, social security number, address, and designer's career in the designer registration screen, and the database server 20 inputs the designer registration information input through the web server 10. Stores the user in the user database 22 to perform the designer member registration process.

After that, the registered platform designer uploads the e-mail platform created on his computer to the e-mail platform providing apparatus 1 through the screen provided by the e-mail platform input unit 13 of the web server 10. The database server 20 stores in the email platform database 23 together with information about the designer who produced the new email platform input through the email platform input unit 13.

On the other hand, in order for a general user to be provided with an e-mail platform that satisfies his or her taste through the e-mail platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention, the general user must first provide user information and be registered as a general member (S110). The general member registration process and the designer member registration process are generally the same except for the difference in the information provided in the registration process, and thus redundant descriptions are omitted below.

If general member registration is made, the user may download the agent program 21 from the screen provided by the web server 10 (S120). The agent program downloaded to the user computer 3 is installed in the auxiliary memory (not shown) of the user computer 3, is loaded into the main memory (not shown), and remains executable (S130). In one embodiment of the present invention, the agent program downloaded to the user computer 3 is loaded into the main memory every time the user computer 3 is newly booted and remains in an executable state.

4 shows the agent program 60 downloaded to the user computer 3 and the agent of the email client 65, the input device 70 and the output device 75, and the email platform providing device 1 in the user computer 3; The operational relationship with the server 15 will be described. The agent program 60 installed and operated in the user computer 3 includes the execution module unit 62 and the data processed by the execution module unit 61 constituted by programs for controlling the central processing unit of the user computer 3. A user interface 63 for displaying a data storage unit 62 storing the downloaded e-mail platform and a downloaded e-mail platform, and receiving / adding / modifying / deleting a part or all of the e-mail platform by receiving an add / modify / delete command from the user. It is provided with.

3 and 4, whenever the agent program 60 is placed in an executable state on the user computer 3, the agent program 60 accesses and logs in to the agent server 15 of the email platform providing apparatus 1 via the Internet 2; It goes through the process (S140). At this time, the execution module unit 61 of the agent program 60 receives the member identifier and password set in the member registration process of step S110 from the user through the interface window provided by the user, and inputs the login information received from the Internet (2). Transfer to the connected agent server 15 through). However, since this process can be a cumbersome task for the user, the execution module unit 61 of the agent program 60 automatically withdraws the member identifier and the password previously stored in the data storage 62 and the agent server 15 automatically. It can also be equipped with an automatic login function to deliver. The flag indicating whether to automatically log in is one of environment variables provided by the agent program 60, and the user may determine the value in advance and store the value in a predetermined area of the data storage 62. In addition to the above flags, the environment variables provided by the agent program 60 may further include a flag indicating whether to automatically execute when starting the window, a flag indicating whether to insert an email platform when sending an email, and the like.

Thereafter, the agent server 15 checks the user information stored in the user database 22 and authenticates the user identifier input through the login information (S150). If the logged in user is found to be a legitimate user, the agent server 15 presents a list of multiple email platforms stored in the email platform database 23 and their implementation form to the logged in user via the user computer 3. At this time, the agent server 15 classifies e-mail platforms withdrawn from the e-mail platform database 23 by a predetermined category or by classifying designers and provides them to the user through the agent program 60.

The agent program 60 receives selection information on the email platform to be downloaded from among the email platforms displayed by the user through the user interface 63 and transmits the selected information to the agent server 15 (S160). Thereafter, the agent server 15 withdraws the email platform selected by the received selection information from the email platform database 23 and delivers it to the agent program 60 (S170). The execution module unit 61 of the agent program 60 stores the email platform received from the agent server 15 in the data storage 62.

The user may proceed with a modification to add / modify / delete a part or all of the downloaded e-mail platform through the user interface 63 of the agent program 60 (S180). That is, the user may add his or her personal information to the downloaded email platform or modify some contents of the email platform to better suit his or her taste. Accordingly, the user interface 63 is preferably provided with an editor that interprets and displays the HTML document and HTML tags the modifications input from the user.

Thereafter, the execution module unit 61 of the agent program 60 monitors whether there is an e-mail transmitted from the e-mail client 70, and is activated when such a situation occurs (S190 and S200). 5 conceptually illustrates a process in which an email platform is inserted and transmitted when an email is transmitted.

When the email client 70 is a program such as MS Internet Explorer (hereinafter referred to as MSIE) that executes web mail, the execution module unit 61 of the agent program 60 executes an activity when MSIE accesses a specific URL. To start.

If the URL accessed by MSIE is a URL for processing a mail transmission process, the execution module unit 61 monitors whether the "send mail" button 80 is clicked on MSIE. When the "send mail" button 80 is clicked, the execution module 61 inserts the e-mail platform stored in the data storage 62 into the mail contents created in MSIE and returns them to MSIE (S210). Afterwards, MSIE transmits the mail content in which the email platform is inserted through the Internet 2 (S220). For example, the execution module unit 61 starts an activity when the URL accessed by MSIE is mail.lycos.co.kr/cgi-bin/wmWriteMail.mcgi, and "mails" after the mail is created by MSIE. Monitor whether button 80 is clicked. When the "send mail" button 80 is clicked, the email platform stored in the data storage unit 62 is inserted in the contents of the mail created by MSIE, and the contenttype tag of the contents of the mail is fixed to "HTML" and returned to MSIE. .

Therefore, the agent program 60 has predetermined URLs to monitor and corresponding HTML tags. If there is a change in the monitored URL and corresponding HTML tag, a new version of the agent program 21 is downloaded via the web server 10, or the agent server 15 is downloaded to the user computer 3 ( Change information can be downloaded.

On the other hand, when the e-mail client 70 is a mail client such as Outlook Express, the execution module unit 61 of the agent program detects the time when the "Send E-mail" button 80 is clicked and starts an activity. That is, when Outlook Express detects that the "Send Mail" button 80 is clicked, the execution module unit 62 of the agent program 60 intercepts the mail created on Outlook Express, and stores the data in the intercepted mail contents. After inserting the e-mail platform stored in 62, the e-mail platform returns to the Outlook Express to send the inserted e-mail contents through the Internet (S210, S220).

As a result, the email client of the email recipient computer can receive the embedded mail content and interpret the HTML tags included in the email platform to place and display the email content to conform to the intended design of the email sender.

The email platform providing process according to the present invention includes a reward process for a platform designer uploading an email platform to the email platform providing apparatus 1 according to the present invention, and a cost payment process for paying the cost to a user who downloads an email platform. It may be further included. However, these processes can be similarly applied to processes used in other business inventions via the Internet (2), so the detailed description thereof will be omitted in the description of the present invention.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

According to the present invention, an ordinary user downloads an e-mail platform corresponding to his or her taste and adds it to the e-mail contents he or she writes regardless of the type of e-mail client or web mail service used by the e-mail recipient. Receive email designed as intended.

In addition, e-mail platform designers can upload their e-mail platform to an e-mail platform providing device and receive a price.

Claims (6)

A web server including a user registration unit for receiving and registering user information through the Internet, and a program download unit for retrieving and downloading an agent program stored in a database server to a computer of a registered user; A login processing unit that receives user login information through the Internet from an agent program downloaded to a user's computer and authenticates the user, and an email platform to select an email platform that a logged-in user wants to download from a plurality of email platforms stored in the following database server. An agent server having a selection unit and an e-mail platform download unit which draws the e-mail platform selected by the logged-in user from the following database server and delivers it to the agent program downloaded to the user's computer via the Internet; And E-mail client, which is downloaded and executed on user's computer, displays the downloaded e-mail platform to the user, and receives / adds / modifies / deletes part or all of e-mail platform by receiving add / modify / delete commands from the user. An agent program that adds an e-mail platform delivered from the agent server to an e-mail sent by the agent server, an e-mail platform database having a plurality of e-mail platforms, and a user information and e-mail platform selection unit for each registered user. And a database server for storing and managing a user database having selection information. The method of claim 1, wherein the web server And an email platform input unit configured to receive an email platform from the registered platform designer via the Internet and deliver the email platform to the database server. delete (a) accessing an e-mail platform providing apparatus using a web browser on a user computer and downloading an agent program; (b) logging in to an email platform providing apparatus using an agent program downloaded from a user's computer, and selecting and downloading an email platform which a logged-in user wants to download from among a plurality of email platforms; (c) displaying the downloaded email platform to the user, and adding / modifying / deleting a part or all of the email platform by receiving an add / modify / delete command from the user; And and (d) the agent program adding and downloading the downloaded email platform to the contents of the email sent by the email client. The method according to claim 4, wherein before step (a) and (e) receiving an e-mail platform through the Internet from a computer of a registered platform designer. delete