JPH08129515A - Electronic mail reference confirmation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To confirm that a receiver refers to a sent mail on the origination side in an electronic mail system. CONSTITUTION: The electronic mail reference confirmation device 100 has a sent mail storage means 12, a history information management means 13, and a reference confirmation receiving means 14 in the electronic mail system 200, and also has a reference confirmation informing means 18 in an electronic mail reception device 30. The sent electronic mail is passed to an electronic mail receiving means 16. When an electronic mail referring means 17 refers to the arrival mail, the sender side is informed by the reference confirmation informing means 18 that the electronic mail was referred to, with a reference confirmation report 19. The informed reference confirmation report 19 is received by a reference confirmation receiving means 15 and the reference is reflected in sent mail history information in a history information managing means 13. Therefore, an electronic mail user can know the address to which sent address information is sent and referred to only by referring to the history information of stored electronic sent mails.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail reference confirmation device, and more particularly, to a recipient of an electronic mail sent by a destination list of electronic mail sent by a device that sends document data created on a computer as an electronic mail. The present invention relates to an electronic mail reference confirmation device capable of confirming that an email has been referred to.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional electronic mail system, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-206244 (electronic mail system), a mail received by a receiver is referred to and then mail is sent as a reply mail to a sender. And was only visible to the caller in a mixed form with the delivery confirmation list of the returned mail or other general mail. Further, in the case of an email sent by designating a large number of destinations, it was necessary to confirm whether the replies were returned to all the destinations.

[0003]

In the reply processing of the above-mentioned electronic mail system, it is confirmed that a reply has been sent at a glance because the confirmation list of returned mails or the returned mails and general mails have been checked. could not. In addition, there is a drawback that the reply mail must be matched and confirmed with respect to each destination of the mail sent from the sender.

[0004]

According to the present invention, in an electronic mail system, an outgoing mail storage means capable of storing outgoing mail and a destination history for managing a history of individual destination information of the outgoing mail. It has an information management means, a reference confirmation notifying means for notifying the sender that the mail received in the electronic mail receiving device has been referred to, and a reference confirmation receiving means for receiving the reference confirmation notification from the reference confirmation notifying means.

Further, the present invention is the electronic mail reference confirmation device according to the first aspect of the present invention, further comprising the destination history information management means for updating the history of the destination information based on the reference confirmation notification from the reference confirmation notification means. .

[0006]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
Shows outgoing mail identification information in one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of the present invention is an electronic mail system having an electronic mail sending device 200 and an electronic mail receiving device 300.
Is an electronic mail sending means 11, an outgoing mail saving means 12 for saving outgoing mail, a history information management means 13 for managing history information of outgoing mail, and an electronic mail receiving device 30.
Reference confirmation receiving means 14 for receiving a reference confirmation notification 19 from 0 and outgoing mail reference means 15 for referring to an outgoing mail.
The electronic mail receiving device 300 includes an electronic mail receiving device 16 for receiving an electronic mail sent from the electronic mail transmitting device 200, an electronic mail referring device 17 for referring to the received electronic mail, and a receiving device. Reference confirmation notification means 18 for notifying the sender when referring to the mail
And The electronic mail reference confirmation device 100 has an outgoing mail storage means 12, a history information management means 13, and a reference confirmation reception means 14 in the electronic mail transmission device 200, and a reference confirmation notification means in the electronic mail reception device 300. I have 18.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of outgoing mail identification information. The outgoing mail identification information includes a sender address, a sender ID, an outgoing mail identification, and a destination identification.
The source address is the physical address where the originating mailbox resides. The sender ID is an ID in a physical address for identifying a sender mailbox. The outgoing mail ID is an ID for uniquely identifying the outgoing mail in the outgoing mailbox. The destination identification is for uniquely identifying the destination in the outgoing mail attached to the outgoing mail.

Next, the operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The sender side 51 is the electronic mail sending means 1
Send a mail using 1 (5-1). The electronic mail is composed of destination information, a document body, and outgoing mail identification information. The outgoing mail identification information includes a sender address, a sender ID, an outgoing mail identification ID, and a destination identification ID as shown in FIG. At the same time, history information (mail document body and destination list information) is saved in the outgoing mail saving means 12 (5-2). When the e-mail arrives at the target e-mail receiving device 300, it is delivered to the e-mail receiving means 16 in the e-mail receiving device 300 (5-6). When the recipient makes a reference (5-7) to the mail arrived by the electronic mail referring means 17, the reference confirmation notifying means 18 refers to the electronic mail referring to the sent mail identification information to notify that the electronic mail is referred to. The confirmation notice 19 is transmitted to the sender side (5-8). The notified reference confirmation notice 19 is received by the reference confirmation receiving means 14 in the electronic mail transmitting device 200 (5-3), and the transmitted mail identification information is used as the history information management means 1.
Notify within 3. Upon receiving the notification from the reference confirmation receiving means 14, the history information management means 13 updates the corresponding destination information of the corresponding mail stored in the outgoing mail storage means 12 (5-4) to reflect the reference. . The sender uses the sent mail reference means 15 to refer to the history information (5-5)
By doing so, it is possible to know that the mail has been referenced.

3 and 4 show the state of the electronic mail stored in the outgoing mail storage means 12 after being sent, before and after receiving the reference confirmation notice. E-mail 3 sent with multiple recipients (history) information 32
Immediately after being transmitted, 1 is in a state where all history information is unreferenced. When the reference confirmation notification 33 for the destination B of the e-mail 31 arrives there, the corresponding destination is found from the outgoing mail identification ID and the destination identification in the reference confirmation notification 33, and the destination (history) information 32 of the e-mail 31 is found.
Is updated like the destination (history) information 42 in FIG. 4 to reflect the reference confirmation notice.

[0012]

Although the e-mail user normally confirms that the sent document has arrived correctly, he / she can make a phone call to know whether the e-mail is actually referred to or not. I had to confirm using communication means such as. The present invention has an effect that it is possible to know at a glance which destination has been sent to the sent destination information by simply referring to the history information of the stored outgoing mail.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing outgoing mail identification information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of an electronic mail sent before arrival of a reference confirmation notification.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state of an electronic mail transmitted after arrival of a reference confirmation notification.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline flow of processing in an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 E-mail Sending Means 12, 13 History Information Management Means 14 Reference Confirmation Receiving Means 15 Outgoing Mail Referencing Means 16 E-mail Receiving Means 17 E-mail Referencing Means 18 Reference Confirmation Notifying Means 19, 33 Reference Confirmation Notices 31, 41 E-mail A ( Body) 32,42 Address (history) information

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail system having an e-mail sending device and an e-mail receiving device, outgoing mail saving means for saving outgoing mail, and destination history information managing history of individual destination information of outgoing mail. E-mail having management means, reference confirmation notifying means for notifying the sender that the e-mail received in the e-mail receiving device has been referred to, and reference confirmation receiving means for receiving the reference confirmation notification from the reference confirmation notifying means Reference confirmation device. 2. The electronic mail reference confirmation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising the destination history information management means for updating the history of the destination information based on the reference confirmation notification from the reference confirmation notification means. An electronic mail reference confirmation device characterized in that