JPH05219103A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] In an e-mail system that sends and receives desired e-mails between individuals or specific groups who subscribe to the network, the work time can be significantly reduced by simplifying the description of the destination information. So that it can be shortened to. [Configuration] A destination (personal name) that does not need to send an email is set as exclusion information in the mail sheet, and when the email to be sent contains the above exclusion information, the destination corresponding to the exclusion information is set. Deleted from the group of personal recipients and sent mail only to the final remaining personal recipients.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail address processing method in an electronic mail system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a mail sent from a sender in an electronic mail system, destination information designating where to send the mail is described in a mail sheet. At present, it is possible to describe an individual name and a group name in this destination information. When a group name is described in the destination information, the described group destination is expanded to individual destinations belonging to the group, and the mail is transmitted to each individual destination.

[0003]

However, when actually sending a mail by describing the group name,
There may be times when you need to keep your mail confidential to those in your group who do not need it, or to that person. In such a case, in the conventional method, it is necessary to describe all personal names to be transmitted as destination information in the mail sheet, so that there is a problem that the work takes time if there are many people to describe. It was

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail system capable of greatly reducing the working time by simplifying the description of destination information.

[0005]

The electronic mail system according to the present invention expands a group destination described in a mail to be transmitted to a personal destination and sends the mail to each personal destination, Furthermore, allow recipients who do not need to send e-mail to be set as exclusion information on the mail sheet, and if the e-mail to be sent contains the exclusion information, select the recipients corresponding to the exclusion information from the personal recipients group. It deletes it and sends an email only to the personal address that finally remained.

[0006]

[Operation] When trying to send an email to all but a part of users in a certain group, if the destination of the user who does not need to send the email is set as exclusion information on the mail sheet, the exclusion information The destination corresponding to is deleted from the personal destination group, and the mail is transmitted only to the finally remaining personal destination. According to this, unlike the conventional method, it is not necessary to describe all the destinations to send emails in the mail sheet, and by specifying the destinations of the users who should be excluded in the exclusion information of the destinations, you can exclude specific users in the group You can send emails to anyone. Therefore, the description of the destination information is simplified, and the description of the destination information can be performed extremely easily and quickly.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of an electronic mail system according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the electronic mail system according to the present invention.

In FIG. 2, 11 and 12 are mail servers having a mail database 10 therein, and a mail service having a mail sending / receiving function is executed, and 13 and 14 are operated by network subscribers, and the mail servers are It is a workstation that sends and receives mail via 11 (or 12), and has a mail sending / receiving unit 15 described later inside. Reference numeral 16 denotes a file server that executes a file service and a clearing house service that provides necessary information (authentication confirmation, destination identification, etc.) according to a user's request, and these devices are mutually connected on a network 17. ing.

The workstations 13 and 14 function as terminal devices when users exchange mails, and can access mail servers and file servers via the network 17.

The mail servers 11 and 12 can access other mail servers, and accept and deliver mails sent from the workstations 13 and 14 by a mail service executed on the mail server. .. Also, the subscriber of the mail service has an individual mailbox (not shown) on the mail service,
Mail addressed to the subscriber will be delivered to the appropriate mailbox. The user can receive the mail through the mail service when the mail is delivered to his / her mailbox.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mail transmitting / receiving unit 15 existing on the workstation 13 (or 14). The mail transmission / reception unit 15 includes a user input unit 1, a transmission processing unit 2, a mail transmission unit 3, a mail reception unit 4, a reception processing unit 5, and a user output unit 6.

The user input section 1 is an interface section for receiving a mail from a user, and has a user interface such as a display, a keyboard and a mouse (not shown). The user can input a message or set various conditions by opening a property sheet or option sheet on the display and operating the keyboard or mouse.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the format of the mail sheet used in the user input section 1. Figure 3
In, in the input area 21, the destination information such as an individual or group name is entered. If the group destination is described here, the mail is sent to each individual destination belonging to the group. In the input area 22, the destination (personal name) of the user who does not need to send the mail is described. The destination described here is set as exclusion information.

The transmission processing unit 2 identifies the mail input through the user input unit 1, inquires of the clearing house service about the destination information described therein, and the destination described in the destination information is correct. To see if If the destination is wrong, an error output is returned to the user via the user input unit 1, and if the destination is correct, the mail is sent to the mail service via the mail sending unit 3. If the group information is described in the destination information,
Once the group destination is expanded to the individual destination group, this individual destination is replaced with the group destination described in the destination information in the mail sheet, and mails for the number of persons to be transmitted are created. At this time, when the mail sheet includes the address exclusion information, the address described here is deleted from the personal address group, and the finally remaining personal address is the address information in the mail sheet. Replace with the group destination described in.

Therefore, when sending a mail to all but some users in a certain group, the destination of the group closest to the destination to be sent is designated in the input area 21, and within that group. The destinations of the users who should be excluded in step 4 may be specified in the input area 22. According to this, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to describe all the destinations to which a mail is to be transmitted in the mail sheet, and the description of the destination information can be simplified.

The reception processing unit 5 periodically inquires of the mail service via the mail reception unit 4 whether the mail has arrived, and if the mail has arrived, notifies the user through the user output unit 6 of the fact. .. On the other hand, when the user gives an instruction to take out the mail, the reception processing unit 5 receives the mail from the mail service through the mail receiving unit 4, and notifies the user through the user output unit 6.

Next, a processing procedure when the transmission processing unit 2 performs processing relating to address exclusion will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the transmission processing unit 2 refers to the mail sheet to determine whether or not the exclusion information of the destination exists (step 101). When the exclusion information exists, the clearing house service (CHS) is inquired whether the destinations to be excluded described therein are correct (step 102), and it is determined whether the destinations to be excluded are correct (step 102). 103). Here, when the destination to be excluded is incorrect, an error output is returned to the user through the user input unit 1 (step 104). On the other hand, when the destinations to be excluded are correct, the grouping destinations are inquired to the clearinghouse service and expanded to individual destinations (step 10).
5). Next, the destinations to be excluded set in the exclusion information of the destinations are deleted from the expanded personal destinations (step 106). Next, the destination finally left by the process of step 106 is replaced with the group destination described in the destination information in the mail sheet as the destination information (step 107). As a result, as many emails as the number of people who should send the original emails have been created. In subsequent steps, normal transmission processing is performed.

[0020]

As described above, in the electronic mail system according to the present invention, destinations that do not need to send mails are set as exclusion information, and personal destinations excluding the destinations corresponding to this exclusion information are set. Since only the mail is sent, the mail can be sent to all except some users in the group by only specifying the destination of the user who should be excluded in the exclusion information of the destination. Therefore,
It becomes possible to describe the destination information extremely easily and quickly, and it is possible to greatly reduce the work time when sending an email.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mail transmission / reception unit existing on a workstation according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of an electronic mail system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a mail sheet format used in a user input unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure in a case where processing relating to address exclusion is performed in the transmission processing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... User input section, 2 ... Transmission processing section, 3 ... Mail transmission section, 4 ... Mail receiving section, 5 ... Reception processing section, 6 ... User output section, 11, 12 ... Mail server, 13, 14 ... Workstation, 15 ... E-mail sending / receiving unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail system that expands a group destination described in an email to be sent to an individual destination and sends the email to each individual destination, sets destinations that do not need to be sent as exclusion information. At the same time, if the email to be sent contains the exclusion information, the destinations corresponding to the exclusion information should be deleted from the group of personal recipients, and the email should be sent to the final remaining personal recipients. An e-mail system characterized by what you have done.