KR20020089076A - Method and device for mail sending using group-mailing technology - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A mail sending method and system is provided to enable all members, affiliated at a group, to receive the same e-mail in a case that each member transmits an e-mail to one e-mail address representative for the group. CONSTITUTION: The system comprises an SMTP(Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server(101), a database(102), a temporary storage(103), an address converter(104), and a transmitter(105). The SMTP server(101) processes a client server protocol in an application layer for exchanging electronic mail messages between internet mail systems. The database(102) stores one representative mail address and all the mail addresses of members affiliated at the representative mail address. The temporary storage(103) stores a mail before being transmitted. The address converter(104) converts the representative mail address into all the members' mail addresses by being connected to the database(102). The transmitter(105) transmits the received mail to the members based on the converted mail addresses.

Description

Method and device for mail sending using group-mailing technology}

During social life, humans exchange information with others until they are born and die. Such methods of information exchange have revolutionized several times. The first revolution was the development of printing technology, which led to the widespread dissemination of newspapers and books, allowing access to the knowledge and information that only the upper class had. The second revolution was the development of communication media and broadcasting equipment, which resulted in an enormous amount of information and a variety of contents, and above all, the speed of information delivery was incomparably faster than in the past. The third revolution is the Internet. The exchange of information through the Internet is endless enough to express the Internet as a 'sea of information'. The Internet overcomes time and distance limitations and makes it easy to share multimedia as well as simple text documents.

Bulletin boards are most often used by certain groups (hereinafter referred to as "groups") for specific purposes to exchange information over the Internet. A bulletin board allows a person who has the authority to read and write (hereinafter referred to as a member) to register his or her information on the bulletin board or to view information registered by other members, thereby enabling free exchange of information between groups. Bulletin boards are widely used for the purpose of information exchange in that all members can provide and receive information.

However, in order to provide or view the material on the bulletin board, members must access the bulletin board to provide and view the material. Both the person who provides the material and the recipient have the trouble of accessing the bulletin board, and members may not always be able to access the bulletin board.

In addition to bulletin boards, e-mail is also used for information exchange. An e-mail refers to a service that allows a person who delivers a message, that is, an information provider, to receive a person's e-mail address as a recipient and receive information on the information received by a person having a corresponding address. This email is common in modern times and most people have more than one email address.

E-mail is often used for information that does not require immediate delivery or information that cannot be delivered sufficiently by telephone. Some services originally offered one-to-one by senders and receivers, and recently one-to-many. This can be used to convey the same information to multiple people at once. However, this is cumbersome to enter each person's address one by one.

Alternatively, there is a service that sends information to all registered members when an administrator sends a mail, such as a mailing list. This is mainly used by administrators to send information to subscribers as needed in meetings such as clubs. However, this method is only available to administrators and cannot be used when members want to send information.

The group mail service sought the following devices and methods to provide free, simple and active information to all members. In order to provide active information among members, a single e-mail address representing the group (hereinafter referred to as the representative address) is the same for all members if each member sends the mail as the recipient address. Its purpose is to send an e-mail.

Figure 1 Configuration of the device according to the present invention

2 is a flow chart of data according to the practice of the invention

Figure 3 is a diagram of the data structure of the present invention.

Figure 4 shows the principle of address translation and mailing

5 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention.

6 shows a comparison between the existing mailing list service and the representative address service.

The configuration of the apparatus for realizing the above object is as follows. As shown in FIG. 1, a simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) server 101 is a server that processes an application-level client server protocol used for exchanging e-mail messages between Internet mail systems.

The database 102 stores representative email address data and address data of members for each representative mail address, and is connected to the SMTP server 101 and the address converter 104 to provide necessary data.

The temporary storage 103 performs a function of temporarily storing a mail before sending it.

The address translator 104 connects to the database 102 and performs a role of converting each member to a recipient by an e-mail received at the representative address.

The sending device 105 performs a function of sending the converted e-mail to each member.

The flow of data according to the configuration of the device is as shown in FIG. When each member sends his or her e-mail address to the sender and the representative address to the recipient, the mail is received by the SMTP server (201), connected to the database, and the representative mail data (207) is searched for the representative mail. Check that it is (202). If it is not the representative mail, the SMTP server returns the mail (208), and if the representative mail is stored in the temporary storage (204). Mail stored in the temporary storage 204 is sent to the address converter 205. The address converter 205 reconnects to the database, extracts an e-mail address list 209 of all members corresponding to the received representative address, and composes an e-mail using each extracted address as a recipient. The email thus produced is sent (206) via the sending device.

Here, the address translation method is as follows. As shown in FIG. 3, the database 102 includes the GRP_email_list and GRP_member tables, and the representative address addresses are stored in the GRP_email_list table, and members corresponding thereto are stored in the GRP_member table. When the SMTP 101 sends e-mail addresses of the sender FROM_email and the receiver TO_email, the mail receiving apparatus searches the receiver in the GRP_member table as follows.

from: rose@hanmail.net

to: flower@flower.com

When the mail set by the sender and the receiver is transmitted to the receiving device 101 of the device as shown in FIG. Check if there is a value matching the address.

SELECT count (*) FROM GRP_member

WHERE MEM_email = 'rose@hanmail.net'

AND GRP_email = 'flower@flower.com'

If the returned value is less than 0, the mail is returned. If 1 is returned, the received mail is stored in the temporary storage (spooler) 103 as shown in the drawing.

The mail received at the spooler 103 goes to the address translator and the address is translated. The address translation method is as follows. The address translator 104 executes the following query on the database 102 to obtain a member email list of the corresponding representative address.

SELECT MEM_email, MEM_name FROM GRP_member

WHERE MEM_email = 'rose@hanmail.net'

AND GRP_email = 'flower@flower.com'

The search result is sent back to the address translator 104 to convert the address of each groupuser to the recipient in the received mail and send the received mail.

Figure 4 shows the address conversion and mail sending method. As described above, when a member sends a mail through the representative address, the mail is sent to all members including the member.

<Example>

Group: Flower Arrangement

Membership: Member A

Member B

Member C

Contact Address: flower@flower.com

Member Address: Member A-> rose@hellow.com

Member B-> wbird@history.com

Member C-> doll@kakao.com

When member A transmits mail as shown in Fig. 5, the same mail is transmitted to all members.

6 illustrates a comparison between a mailing list and a representative address service. As shown in the figure, the person providing the information only needs to send an e-mail, and the person who wants to provide the information can easily exchange information by checking the e-mail.

In the case of the existing mailing list, the administrator simply sends the contents of announcements to the members unilaterally, and the representative address service can easily notify all the members through the representative address. .

In addition, other members who receive these mails can write their opinions directly through replies, which can be used as an e-mail newsgroup.

Claims (2)

Assigning a representative address to each group in the mail server; Converting the mail received at the representative address into an e-mail address of each member; Sending an e-mail to each member at the translated address; The service model of claim 1, which is issued to a representative address club.