KR20060011754A - A method for providing a memo function in electronic mail service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for providing a memo function in an e-mail, the method comprising: checking whether a memo data input by a sender is included in a newly received e-mail; Extracting memo data from the e-mail and inserting the memo data into the e-mail header; Reading an e-mail header stored in the recipient's mailbox in a predetermined number corresponding to the e-mail reading request received from the recipient MUA; The predetermined number of e-mail headers are displayed in a list, an e-mail header including memo data among the displayed e-mail headers is displayed with a memo icon, and an applet for outputting the memo data when the receiver MUA detects a mouse event. Generating a letter reading page comprising a; And sending the letter read page to the recipient MUA. According to the present invention, by inserting a memo that can briefly explain the contents of the mail, there is an advantage that the contents or attachments of the corresponding mail can be checked without opening the mail.

Notes, mail, management

Description

A method for providing a memo function in electronic mail service}             

1 is a block diagram showing an Internet mail system according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is an exemplary view showing a memo attachment method using a MIME HEADER according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of inserting and transmitting memo data as an attachment file of an e-mail according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of inserting memo data when receiving an e-mail according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of generating a mail reading page in which a mail server inserts memo data to be transmitted to a recipient's MUA according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

6 is an exemplary view showing a letter reading page for confirming an e-mail with a memo inserted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an electronic mail, and more particularly, to a method for managing a simple information, i.e., a memo corresponding to an electronic mail, and a recording medium on which the method is recorded, in order to increase the identification of the electronic mail.

Unlike general mail systems, web mail is a system that allows a user to read mail in a web browser without a special interface or a protocol that requires mail to be sent from a mail server. In the early days of the web mail service, only 5MB of low-capacity storage was provided, but recently, up to 1GB of storage is provided. As a result, in the past, data that was about the size of a text file was mainly transmitted as an attachment, but now a video or MP3 file of several tens of megabytes or more can be transmitted via web mail. Therefore, the form of using web mail is also very different from the past. In other words, in the past, mainly text-based e-mail transmission and reception was the main purpose of web mail, and large-capacity web mail services could be used for such purposes as file storage or document management.

Recently, as e-commerce through the Internet is activated, various e-mails such as order confirmation and delivery results are received. However, most mails related to electronic commerce are sent by the automatic mail sending system, and the same subject is given to each category, and the contents of the mail must be checked in order to check what products are related. Even if the mail is not related to e-commerce, users are using mail to manage files or documents as the mail volume increases, and many users do not know the contents of the file or document without opening the mail.

In addition to mail browser programs such as Outlook Express, some web mails also offer previewing capabilities, so you can check the contents of a message without opening it. However, in order to implement such a preview, the load of the mail server is rapidly increased because the web mail system has to read not only the subject of each mail but also the body and transmit the same to the subscriber terminal. Increasing the load on the mail server can occur not only on the web mail server but also on the local mail server.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, the present invention is to propose a method of simply checking the contents of the mail without opening the mail by inserting a memo that can briefly explain the contents of the mail.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for not only a mail receiver but also a mail sender to insert and send a note indicating the contents of the mail so that the mail receiver can easily check the contents of the received mail without incurring load on the mail server. To suggest.

It is still another object of the present invention to propose a method in which a user can efficiently utilize a large-capacity mail space by simply checking the contents of the mail through a memo.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, in a method executed in the mail server to provide a memo function in the e-mail, the memo data input by the sender to the newly received e-mail Checking whether it is included; Extracting memo data from the e-mail and inserting the memo data into the e-mail header; Reading an e-mail header stored in the recipient's mailbox in a predetermined number corresponding to the e-mail reading request received from the recipient MUA; The predetermined number of e-mail headers are displayed in a list, an e-mail header including memo data among the displayed e-mail headers is displayed with a memo icon, and an applet for outputting the memo data when the receiver MUA detects a mouse event. Generating a letter reading page comprising a; And a method for providing a memo function in an e-mail comprising the step of transmitting the letter read page to the recipient MUA, and a recording medium storing the method.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for providing a memo function in an e-mail, the method comprising: checking whether a newly received e-mail includes memo data input by a sender; Extracting memo data from the e-mail and storing the memo data in a memo database and storing storage location information in a mailbox in association with the e-mail; Reading an e-mail header stored in the recipient's mailbox in a predetermined number corresponding to the e-mail reading request received from the recipient MUA; The predetermined number of e-mail headers are displayed in a list form, a memo icon is displayed on the e-mail header including associated storage location information among the displayed e-mail headers, and the storage location information is linked to the memo icon. Generating a mail reading page including an applet which outputs memo data corresponding to the storage location information when a mouse event is detected at a receiver MUA; And a method for providing a memo function in an e-mail comprising the step of transmitting the letter read page to the recipient MUA, and a recording medium storing the method.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method executed in a mail server to provide a memo function in an e-mail, the method comprising: storing in a predetermined number of mail boxes of a recipient corresponding to an e-mail reading request received from a recipient MUA. Reading an e-mail header; Generating a mail reading page in a list form and transmitting data corresponding to at least one field of the predetermined number of electronic mail headers to the recipient MUA; When one of the lists is selected, displaying a message content of a corresponding e-mail and generating a letter content reading page including a memo input button and transmitting the message content to a recipient MUA; And inserting the memo data in the selected e-mail header when the memo data is received from the recipient MUA, and a recording medium in which the memo function is provided.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings are only for easily explaining the present invention and are not intended to limit the spirit and scope of the present invention to the embodiments and the corresponding descriptions.

1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of a mail system to which the present invention is implemented.

Mail User Agents (MUAs) 100 and 150 are client programs used by users to send and receive e-mail. In the case of web mail which checks mail from a remote mail system through a protocol such as POP or IMAP, an Internet browser is generally used as a MUA. Other MUAs may include mail browser programs such as Microsoft's Outlook Express and Netscape's Netscape Mail.

The Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) 110 receives an e-mail through a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) communication protocol. That is, the MTA 110 calls the Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) 120 to transmit an e-mail received from another MTA or MUA to another MTA or to instruct the user's mail box 130 to be delivered.

The MDA 120 performs a function of delivering an e-mail received by the MTA 110 to a real user, and a case of delivering the message internally and externally occurs. In case of external transmission, each MDA exists according to a channel. When delivered internally, the received e-mail is stored in each user's mailbox.

The mail box 130 is a database for storing e-mail. The mail box 130 may include a method of continuously adding an e-mail (MBOX) or storing each e-mail as a respective file in one directory. Currently, the MBOX method is the most widely used.

Mail Retrieval Agent (MRA) 140 is a program that allows a user to access to check e-mail from the outside, and includes POP3 DEAMON and IMAP4 DEAMON.

I. Methods of Attaching Notes to Email

According to the present invention, the memo data for briefly confirming the mail may be transmitted to the sender by attaching it to the mail, or may attach the memo data for management of the mail after the receiver receives the mail. Hereinafter, a description will be given of methods in which the sender attaches memo data to an e-mail.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of attaching a sender may be divided into a method of attaching to a MIME header, a method of attaching as an attachment, and a method of inserting into a body.

Example 1

2 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a memo attachment method using a MIME header in a mail header, in particular, an electronic mail encoded with MIME. As shown in FIG. 2, the mail consists of header information and formatted body information, the MIME HEADER consists of a plurality of fields, and most of the fields contain information about a MIME-encoded body. According to the first embodiment, memo data created by the sender is inserted into the header information of the mail. This embodiment has the advantage of maintaining compatibility between systems by using the standard without modification. Most e-mails today rarely consist of simple text, and most are written in Rich Text (RTF) or HTML documents. Therefore, MIME Encoding is essential when sending an e-mail.

In the MIME-version field 200, version information of the MIME is recorded.

The Content-Type field 210 indicates the type of data in the message so that the MUA can correctly parse the mail body content.

The Content-Transfer-Encoding field 220 indicates how the message is encoded.

The Content-ID field 230 represents information for bodies to refer to each other.

In the content-description field 240, information for describing a body is recorded and may be selectively used. Here, the Content-Description field 240 is used to add a text description to the attached binary file. However, the Content-Description field 240 is rarely used as most MUAs do not display descriptions directly to recipients, and multi-part mail messages can be created.

Therefore, the memo created by the mail sender is inserted into the Content-Description field 240 which is rarely used in this embodiment. The sender MUA is provided with an interface through which the sender can insert a memo, and the memo input by the user is inserted into the content-description field 240 and transmitted to the receiving mail system. The receiving mail system reads and displays memo information in the content-description field 240, so that the memo can be easily transmitted and received without changing the standard in use.

According to a preferred embodiment, the memo data is inserted into the Content-Description field 240, but it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the memo data can be inserted into other fields other than the Content-Description field 240 in the MIME header field. . It is also possible to add header fields to insert memo content into the added fields. If you insert memo data into the added header field, you can insert a memo data by creating an arbitrary header starting with 'X-'.

Example 2

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of inserting and transmitting memo data as an attachment file of an electronic mail. Referring to FIG. 3, a memo may be inserted in the form of an attached file in the sender's MUA. If the sender's MUA selects a new mail button or a mail transmission button, the sender's MUA asks the sender whether to write a memo describing the electronic mail (S300). The querying method may be implemented through various interfaces. For example, a method of displaying a memo writing screen may be used when the sender selects writing a memo after displaying a pop-up menu (S302).

If the sender selects the completion button after inputting the memo data on the memo creation screen, the sender's MUA generates a file (for example, MEMO.TXT) containing the input memo data (S304). Here, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that file names or file formats may be variously modified.

The generated memo file is attached to the e-mail (S306) and then sent to the mail server corresponding to the e-mail address of the recipient (S308).

The MUA of the mail server or the recipient receiving the e-mail checks whether there is an attachment file and if there is an attachment file, whether a memo file having a preset name exists (S310). Here, it is preferable to use unique identification information as a file name or to insert it in the memo file so that it can be identified as a memo file between the MUA-mail server or the MUA-MUA.

If a memo file is attached, the memo file is extracted from the e-mail (S312). It is preferable to delete the memo file attached to the remaining e-mail.

The contents of the extracted memo file are inserted into the header of the e-mail recorded in the mailbox (S314). The memo inserted in the header of the e-mail may be read along with the contents recorded in other fields of the header when the e-mail is read and displayed on the recipient computer. The display method of the memo will be described later. Alternatively, the memo file may be stored in a database that manages only memo information separately.

Example 3

Memo data may be inserted into the body of the e-mail. A memo can be inserted using a unique identifier (hereinafter, referred to as a memo identifier) that displays the contents of a mail in an e-mail written in HTML or a similar language. The procedure of inserting a memo into a message is similar to the procedure described with reference to FIG. 3, except that the memo data entered by the sender is inserted as part of an e-mail message, not as an attachment, and the memo identifier of the message server is determined by the mail server or the recipient MUA. There is a difference in the process of checking whether there is.

The memo identifier is preferably in the form corresponding to the document type of the e-mail message to be sent. For example, in an XML document, every command or directive consists of pairs of <...> and </ ...>, so a memo identifier would look like this. In one example, the memo data may be inserted into the body of the e-mail in the following manner.

<brief-memo>

The Samsung HDTV CR48 you ordered is being delivered.

</ brief-memo>

After receiving the mail, the mail server or the recipient MUA searches for the memo identifier in the e-mail message, reads out the memo data corresponding to the memo identifier, inserts the memo data into the mail header, or stores the memo data in a database for separately managing the memo data.

Example 4

As described above, the memo data may be attached to the mail when the sender sends the mail, but may be attached later by the receiver for mail management after the mail is received. Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the recipient attaches memo data for managing mail is described.

The recipient can view the received e-mail and manage the contents of the e-mail or the attached file in a separate memo. The header of an e-mail consists of a sender address, a sender address, a sending and receiving time, and a mail subject. An e-mail consists of a header and a body, the message content. In a mailbox conforming to the MBOX format, electronic mails are managed as one file, as shown in FIG.

If the recipient MUA reads and displays a plurality of email headers in the mailbox, the recipient can select any of the emails, and the recipient MUA parses and displays the message content corresponding to the selected email 450A in the mailbox. do. That is, the message content read out from the mailbox is displayed on the letter contents read page, and the mail server transmits the letter contents read page to the recipient MUA.

Next, when the recipient selects a memo input button separately provided to insert a memo into the selected e-mail (S400), a screen for inputting memo data to be inserted into the e-mail is displayed (S402). That is, when the recipient selects the memo input button, the mail server transmits a memo input page to the recipient MUA, and the recipient inputs memo data through the memo input page. Here, when the recipient MUA is a web browser, a memo insertion button is located at the top or bottom of the message content confirmation window, and in the case of a mail program, a memo insertion button is located at the top of the message content confirmation window. In addition, a separate input window is placed at the bottom of the window displaying the message content of the selected e-mail on the read mail content page, and the recipient may input memo data through the input window.

When the receiver inputs brief information on the selected e-mail through the memo input screen (S404), the input memo data is transmitted to the mail server. When the same e-mail as the original e-mail stored in the mail server is stored in the receiver terminal, the client, the transmission process to the mail server may be omitted.

The memo data entered by the recipient is inserted into the header of the e-mail stored in the mailbox (450B). When the electronic mail stored in the mailbox is a MIME-encoded mail, memo data may be inserted into the Content-Description field according to the first embodiment. In another embodiment, a separate database (hereinafter, referred to as a memo database) for memos may be provided to store and manage memo data input by the receiver. Here, the memo database may be configured to interwork with a mailbox, so that the memo data may be provided when a memo data request regarding a specific e-mail among a plurality of e-mails stored in the mailbox is requested.

II. Ways the mail server handles email containing notes

Memo processing by the mail server or recipient MUA is divided into a method of inserting memo data into an e-mail header and managing it as an e-mail, and storing only the memo data in a separate database and managing it in association with the e-mail. Can be.

The method of inserting the memo data into the header of the e-mail may be processed differently as follows according to the memo insertion method described above.

The mail server receiving the e-mail with the memo data inserted therein checks whether the memo is inserted in a manner corresponding to the memo inserting method and inserts the inserted memo into the e-mail header. That is, when receiving a MIME-encoded mail, after checking whether the memo data is inserted by checking the Content-Description field in the MIME header, the inserted memo data is extracted and inserted into the decoded e-mail header stored in the mailbox. If it is stored in the mailbox as MIME-encoded, it may be MIME-decoded after inserting memo data into the e-mail header after decoding MIME.

If memo data is sent as an attachment to a received e-mail, the mail server extracts the memo file from the e-mail, inserts the contents of the memo file into the e-mail header, and deletes the memo file from the original e-mail. It may be.

When memo data is inserted in the message contents of the received e-mail, the mail server searches the entire message contents to determine whether a memo identifier is included when the e-mail is received. If a memo identifier is included, the corresponding memo data is read and inserted into the e-mail header. The memo data included in the message content may be selectively deleted or kept as it is.

The method of storing and managing memo data in a memo database is to distinguish and manage e-mail and memo data, and a memo database is linked with a mailbox or a mail server. The memo database includes at least an e-mail identification field and a memo data field, and is preferably configured to be distinguished for each subscriber. The memo database uses memo data by using identification information (e.g., subscriber identification information, serial number assigned to each e-mail, primary key value, or sender address-recipient address-transmission / reception time, etc.) stored in a mailbox. You can associate e-mail with. That is, the mail server stores the memo data included in the received e-mail or the memo data transmitted by the recipient together with the related e-mail identification information in the memo database. In addition, the memo database may return information regarding a location where memo data is stored to a mailbox, and the mailbox may be linked with the memo database by inserting storage location information into a corresponding electronic mail. The memo database may return memo data by request of a mail server, or may return storage location information where memo data is stored. This will be described later.

III. Ways to Display E-Mail with Notes

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of generating a mail reading page in which a mail server inserts memo data to be transmitted to a recipient's MUA according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a screen for confirming an e-mail in which a memo is inserted. Figure is an example showing. Since the process described below can be performed not only in the mail server but also in the recipient MUA, the mail server will be described by way of example in order to avoid the trouble of explanation.

In the above-described manner, e-mails containing a memo in the header of the e-mail are stored in a mailbox for each recipient, and are processed and transmitted when an e-mail reading request is received from the recipient MUA. If the recipient is authenticated by the ID and password that the user is a legitimate user, and then accesses the mail server via a web browser or POP / IMAP DEAMON to request e-mail viewing (step 500), the mail server outputs a predetermined number and output. The e-mail header corresponding to the order is read out from the mailbox (S502). Here, the predetermined number is the number of e-mails to be output in one letter reading page when the recipient MUA is a web browser, and the output order includes e-mail receiving time and the like. In the MBOX system, the file is updated for each e-mail reception time, so that a predetermined number of e-mail headers are read from the beginning or the end of the electronic file.

The extracted plurality of e-mail headers are displayed in a list on one letter reading page so that they can be output in the order of sender-mail subject-time. The letter reading page is generated by using a predetermined template for each web mail service provider. If memo data is inserted in the e-mail header (S504), the memo data is inserted in the letter reading page in a hidden state, and whether or not the memo is inserted is It is displayed through the icon (S506). Preferably, whether or not to insert a memo is displayed by attaching a memo icon to the left or right side of the mail subject. The letter reading page template may include a memo output applet in which memo data is not directly output on the receiver terminal, and may be output in the form of abundant help only when the mouse cursor is positioned on the memo or when a click event occurs. do. Therefore, even if the user does not open the mail, the user can check the contents of the memo of the mail simply by placing the mouse on the memo icon.

In another embodiment, if memo data is stored in the memo database, step S504 determines whether there is memo data associated with the e-mail through interworking between the mailbox and the memo database. When the memo data is confirmed by interworking between the mailbox and the memo database, the mail server queries the memo database for the e-mail identification information and receives corresponding memo data. The received e-mail identification information is compared with the e-mail to be displayed on the letter reading page, and a memo icon is displayed on the e-mail in which the memo data exists, and the memo data is inserted into the letter reading page and transmitted to the recipient MUA. In another embodiment, when the storage location information of the memo data is managed in the mailbox, only the e-mail to be displayed on the letter reading page to be generated may be read from the memo database and inserted into the letter reading page. However, preferably, the mail reading page includes only storage location information, and the recipient MUA downloads the mail reading page from the mail server and separately downloads memo data from the memo database using the included storage location information. The download of the memo data may be performed simultaneously or sequentially with the download of the letter reading page, or may occur when a mouse cursor event occurs.

The recipient MUA, which has received the mail reading page generated by the mail server, displays it on the screen (S508). When the mail read page is displayed on the screen, the memo output applet begins to detect whether the cursor has moved or clicked.

When the recipient places the cursor on the memo icon included in the letter reading page displayed on the screen or clicks / double-clicks the memo icon, a memo output event is detected (S510) and the selected memo event included in the letter reading page is displayed. Output the corresponding memo data as hover help. In this case, the memo data may be output through a separate output window in addition to the balloon help. The state in which the memo data is output as the balloon help by the cursor movement of the receiver can be seen in FIG. 6. If the mail reading page contains only the storage location information, when the cursor event occurs, the corresponding memo data can be parsed from the memo database and output through the balloon help or pop-up window.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a user may provide a separate folder called memo mail so that a user can view only memo mail, and when a user clicks a memo mail folder, only memo mail may be grouped and provided. .

According to another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6, a mail reading page may be reconfigured and provided to a user based on a memo without displaying a mail based on a title.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and many variations are possible by those skilled in the art within the spirit of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that the contents or attachments of the corresponding mail can be checked without opening the mail by inserting a memo for briefly explaining the contents of the mail. In addition, not only the mail recipient but also the mail sender inserts and sends a memo indicating the content of the mail, so that the mail receiver can easily check the contents of the received mail without incurring load on the mail server.

Claims (1)

In a method executed on a mail server to provide a memo function in an email, Checking whether the newly received e-mail includes memo data input by the sender; Extracting memo data from the e-mail and inserting the memo data into the e-mail header; Reading an e-mail header stored in the recipient's mailbox in a predetermined number corresponding to the e-mail reading request received from the recipient MUA; The predetermined number of e-mail headers are displayed in a list, an e-mail header including memo data among the displayed e-mail headers is displayed with a memo icon, and an applet for outputting the memo data when the receiver MUA detects a mouse event. Generating a letter reading page comprising a; And Transmitting the letter read page to the recipient MUA, The memo data is stored in a content description field of a header of a MIME, and the mail server outputs the memo data in the form of a balloon help when the MUA detects a mouse event. Way.

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