JP3487786B2 - E-mail system, e-mail transmission device, and e-mail transmission method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system, and more particularly, to an electronic mail system that quickly executes transmission to a plurality of destinations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a mail server sends a mail regardless of whether or not the machine to which the mail is sent is running. Therefore, even if the machine to which the mail is sent is not running, there is a problem. I was trying to send emails at regular intervals.

When sending an outgoing mail to a plurality of people within a short time, not only the machines that are running but also many machines that are not running are the destinations. I sent it without considering the operating status of the machine.

When a mail is sent to a machine that has not started up, the mail is stored in the spool of the mail server and repeatedly sent after a certain period of time.

A retrospective search of the technology related to the field of the present invention from past patent applications reveals Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-97446, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-10539, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-1865.
There is a system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 93, and in each of these systems, the mail in a state in which the destination machine is not in operation is temporarily stored, and the above-mentioned is performed without waiting for the periodical spool mail cleaning timing. Although there is an opportunity to send a temporarily stored mail, the above-mentioned sending opportunity is triggered by the arrival of an inquiry from a destination that was not operating or the arrival of a normal mail.

[0006]

However, in the prior art, when sending an outgoing mail to a plurality of people, if there are many machines that are not running at the destination, it takes a long time to operate. , There was a time loss in the time to send an email to the machine where the destination is running.

Further, when a mail is sent to a machine that is not running, the mail accumulates in the spool of the mail server for a predetermined period of time, and at a time later than the time when the mail is sent to the machine that is not running. Even if the destination machine is running, the email will only be sent after the specified time, so during this time the disk of the email server will be squeezed and email information will be transmitted. There was a time loss by the time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems in the conventional electronic mail system.
It is possible to provide an electronic mail system that can reduce the time loss at the time of sending a sendable mail and send the spooled mail at the time when it becomes possible to send the mail to improve the throughput of the sending process. To aim.

[0009]

An electronic mail system according to the present invention has an electronic mail transmitting device including a communication means, a data processing means, and a storage unit, and via the electronic mail transmitting device and a network. An electronic mail system having a plurality of connected mail communication terminals, wherein the storage unit stores a mail address of a mail addressed to a mail communication terminal that is empirically shown to be able to receive mail. And a spool mail storage unit that stores a mail that has failed to be sent, and the data processing unit stores the mail address in the mail address storage unit among the mail addresses of one or more destinations of the current mail for which a transmission request is made. If the current mail is sent to the stored mail address and the sending fails, the sending fails from the mail address storage unit. That a first transmission means for deleting an email address, the transmission request there was the current mail 1 or 2
Second sending means for sending the current mail after the operation of the first sending means to a mail address not stored in the mail address storage section among the above-mentioned destination mail addresses, and the second sending means Means for storing in the mail address storage section the mail address that was successfully transmitted by, and means for storing in the spool mail storage section together with the mail address the current mail that failed to be transmitted by the first and second transmission means, It is characterized by including.

Also, in the electronic mail system according to the present invention, in the above electronic mail system, the first and second sending means may send the current mail together with the current mail at the time of sending the current mail. A mail stored in the spool mail storage unit having the same mail address as in the above is also transmitted.

An electronic mail transmitting apparatus according to the present invention is an electronic mail transmitting apparatus which includes a communication unit, a data processing unit, and a storage unit and which transmits an electronic mail to a plurality of mail communication terminals connected via a network. The storage unit includes a mail address storage unit that stores the mail address of the mail addressed to the mail communication terminal that has been empirically shown to be able to receive the mail, and a spool mail storage unit that stores the mail that failed to be sent. And the data processing means comprises:
The mail is sent to the mail address stored in the mail address storage unit among the mail addresses of one or more destinations of the current mail requested to be sent, and if the transmission fails, the mail address storage unit A first sending means for deleting the mail address relating to the transmission failure from the above, and a mail which is not stored in the mail address storage unit among the mail addresses of one or more destinations of the current mail requested to be sent. Second transmitting means for transmitting the current mail to the address after the operation of the first transmitting means,
A means for storing in the mail address storage section a mail address successfully transmitted by the second transmission means, and a spool mail storage section together with a mail address for the current mail failed to be transmitted by the first and second transmission means. And a means for storing the data in the memory.

Further, in the electronic mail transmitting device according to the present invention, in the above electronic mail transmitting device, the first and second transmitting means are the destinations of the transmission together with the current mail at the time of transmitting the current mail. The mail stored in the spool mail storage unit having the same mail address as the mail address is also transmitted.

The electronic mail transmitting method according to the present invention is an electronic mail transmitting method for transmitting an electronic mail to a plurality of mail communication terminals connected via a network, wherein one or more of the current mails requested to be transmitted are sent. Sending the current mail to the mail address stored in the mail address storage unit among the destination mail addresses and deleting the mail address related to the transmission failure from the mail address storage unit if the transmission fails And the sending step of
A second transmission in which the current mail is transmitted after the first transmission step to a mail address that is not stored in the mail address storage unit among the mail addresses of one or more destinations of the current mail that has been requested to be transmitted. Step and the second
After the sending step, the step of storing the mail address successfully sent by the second sending step in the mail address storage unit, and the current mail failed by the first and second sending steps by the mail address. Together with the step of storing the spool mail in the spool mail storage section.

Also, in the electronic mail transmitting method according to the present invention, in the above electronic mail transmitting method, when the current mail is transmitted in the first and second transmitting steps,
A mail stored in the spool mail storage unit having the same mail address as the destination mail address is also sent together with the current mail.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The electronic mail system according to the present embodiment includes an electronic mail transmitting device 10 including a communication device 1 for transmitting a mail, a data processing device 2 which operates under program control, and a storage device 3 for storing information. And a plurality of mail communication terminals 12 connected to the electronic mail transmitting device 10 via the network 13.

The communication device 1 includes a transmission processing unit 11 for transmitting a mail for which a transmission request has been made.

The data processing device 2 is provided with a search unit 21 that also serves as a control unit, a data write processing unit 22, and a data deletion processing unit 23.

The storage device 3 includes a mail address storage unit 31.
And a mail address temporary storage storage unit 32 and a spool mail storage unit 33.

The search unit 21 controls the overall operation of the system, and at the same time, the search unit 21 searches the information of the transmittable mail address from the information of the mail address storage device 31 using the mail address as a key, and further, the spool mail storage unit 33. Using the email address as a key to search from the information in (1), verify whether there is any email that has not been sent.

The data write processing unit 22 includes a search unit 21.
In accordance with the instruction from, the information of the mail address is written in the storage device 3.

The data deletion processing unit 23 deletes the information of the mail address of the storage device 3 according to the instruction from the search unit 21.

The mail address storage unit 31 includes a search unit 21.
In accordance with the instruction from, the information of the mail address that can be transmitted is stored.

The e-mail address temporary storage unit 32 receives the e-mail address storage unit 31 according to an instruction from the search unit 21.
Temporarily store mail addresses that are not stored in.

The spool mail storage unit 33 includes a search unit 21.
The mail address of the mail stored in the spool (not shown) is stored according to the instruction from.

The principle of the electronic mail system according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 based on the basic operation.

The search unit 21 extracts the mail address of the mail to be transmitted from the transmission processing unit 11, and the search unit 21 searches the mail address storage unit 31 using the extracted mail address as a key.

As a result of the search, if the extracted mail address is present in the mail address stored in the mail address storage unit 31 (this means that the mail address of the mail to be sent is the same as the previous transmission process). In the above, it means that the email address has already been sent, that is, the destination machine (mail communication terminal) corresponding to the email address is a machine that is highly likely to be operating now. to do so,
Send the email with the email address extracted above. Further, when sending the above-mentioned mail, the search unit 21 has a high possibility that the periodical sending processing of the spool mail has not been carried out immediately after the machine to which the mail is sent starts up, and therefore, Since there is a possibility that mail is accumulated in the spool, the search unit 21 compares the mail address stored in the spool mail storage unit 33 with the mail address of the above-mentioned mail to be sent, If they match, the mail stored in the spool is also sent after the above mail is sent.

Otherwise, as a result of the above search, the mail address of the mail to be transmitted is the mail address storage unit 3
If it does not exist in 1, the search unit 21 stores the mail address in the mail address temporary storage storage unit 32, and first searches for the mail whose mail address is already stored in the mail address storage unit 31. The mail is sent first, and then the mail of the mail address stored in the mail address temporary storage unit 32 is tried to be sent.

By the above operation, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience of sending a mail to a destination having a high undeliverability to the transmission processing unit 11 in advance, and to promptly transmit a mail having a high possibility of sending. It is possible.

The operation of the electronic mail system according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the initial conditions for the above operation will be described. At the time of start-up, no mail address exists in the mail address storage unit 31. In that case, the search unit 21
After storing all the email addresses of the emails requested to be sent in the email address temporary storage unit 32,
Try to send them. If the transmission of the email is successful, the email address of the email is stored in the email address storage unit 31. Otherwise, if the transmission of the email fails, the email itself is stored in the spool email storage unit 33. .

From the next similar transmission process, the mail address storage unit 31 has a mail address of a mail that is empirically guaranteed to have a high possibility of being sent.

Therefore, from the next time, when the same mail as the transmission request is sent to a plurality of machines, the search unit 2
1. By using the email address of the email as a key,
The mail address storage unit 31 is sequentially searched, and if the mail address of the mail exists, the search unit 21 further searches the spool mail storage unit 33.

As a result of the search in the spool mail storage section 33, if there is a spool mail, the mail requested to be sent and the spool mail are sent together. If there is no spool mail, only the mail requested to be sent is sent.

When the above-mentioned transmission fails, the mail address of the mail that has failed to be transmitted is deleted from the mail address storage unit 31, and the mail itself that has failed to be transmitted is stored in the mail spool mail storage unit 33 again.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a specific example of the operation of the electronic mail system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

A specific example of the operation of the electronic mail system according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 and the flowchart shown in FIG.

For example, it is assumed that there are mails to be sent to a plurality of people. In the conventional system, the mail processed by send mail is transmitted regardless of whether the machine is activated. In the electronic mail system according to the embodiment of the present invention, first, in step A1, the search unit 21 The mail address of the next mail to be sent is retrieved and acquired from the individual sent mails that have been requested to be sent.

Next, in step A16, the search unit 21
However, whether the above email address exists, that is,
It is checked whether or not the mail address retrieved and acquired in step A1 is empty. If the retrieved and acquired e-mail address is empty, the flow of control is moved to the processing steps below step A8.

Next, in step A2, the search unit 21
Search the mail address storage unit 31, and perform step A1.
The e-mail address obtained in is the e-mail address storage unit 3
1 is stored.

If it is found by the search of the mail address storage unit 31 by the search unit 21 that the mail address acquired in step A1 does not exist in the mail address storage unit 31, then in step A3, The data write processing unit 22 stores the email address acquired in step A1 in the email address temporary storage unit 3
Store in 2.

Otherwise, if it is found that the mail address obtained in step A1 also exists in the mail address storage unit 31, further, in step A4,
Similarly, the search unit 21 searches the spool mail storage unit 33 and verifies whether or not a mail having the mail address acquired in step A1 exists in the spool mail storage unit 33.

If the mail having the mail address acquired in step A1 exists in the spool mail storage unit 33, the searching unit 21 determines in step A5 the current mail of the mail address acquired in step A1. At the same time, the mail that has existed in the spool of the spool mail storage unit 33 up to the present time, that is, the mail that has accumulated up to now is also transmitted from the transmission processing unit 11 via the search unit 21.

Otherwise, if there is no mail having the mail address acquired in step A1 in the spool mail storage unit 33, the search unit 21 determines in step A6
Only the current mail of the mail address acquired in step A1 is transmitted from the transmission processing unit 11 via the search unit 21.

At step A7, the search unit 21 sends the above-mentioned transmission of the mail having the mail address acquired at step A1 or the mail having the mail address acquired at step A1 and the mail accumulated in the spool of the spool mail storage unit 33. It is verified whether or not it has failed, and if it fails, the mail address of the above-mentioned failed mail is deleted from the mail address storage unit 31 in step A71, and the data writing process is executed in step A72. The mail itself, which has failed to be transmitted, is again stored in the spool mail storage unit 33 together with the mail address via the unit 22.

The above-mentioned series of processing is executed by iterative processing for each mail address of the transmitted mail for which the above-mentioned transmission request has been made, that is, all the mail addresses acquired in step A1. When the e-mail addresses acquired in step A1 are exhausted, the flow of control moves to the processing of step A8 and subsequent steps described below, and the processing of transmitting an e-mail addressed to the e-mail address in the e-mail address temporary storage unit 32 is started.

First, in step A8, the retrieval unit 21
The next mail address is searched from the mail address temporary storage unit 32.

In step A9, the search result is judged, and if the above-mentioned next mail address exists (that is, it is not empty), the flow of control is moved to step A10 below, otherwise, the above-mentioned is executed. If the next mail address does not exist (that is, if it is empty), the mail temporarily stored in the mail address temporary storage storage unit 32 has also run out, and all transmission processing is terminated.

At step A10, it is determined whether or not the spool mail having the mail address having the searched mail address exists in the spool mail storage unit 33. If the spool mail does not exist, only the current mail of the mail address searched in step A8 is sent. Otherwise, if the spool mail exists, the above-mentioned existence is present together with the current mail of the mail address searched in step A8. Spool mail is also sent at the same time.

Next, in step A13, the retrieval unit 21
However, it is verified whether or not the above-mentioned transmission has succeeded, and for the mail for which the above-mentioned transmission has succeeded, the mail address of the mail is stored in the mail address storage unit 31 in step A14. However, with respect to the above-mentioned unsuccessful sending mail, in step A15, the above-mentioned unsuccessful sending mail itself is stored in the spool mail storage unit 33 together with the mail address, and thereafter, in any case,
The control flow is returned to step A9.

In the above embodiment, the description has been made assuming that the mail server sends the same mail to a plurality of destinations. However, regardless of the contents of the mail, the mail server can send a plurality of destinations within a short time. The electronic mail system according to the present invention is also effective when transmitting the data.

[0054]

According to the present invention described above, when the mail server sends the same mail to a plurality of destinations, or when it sends to a large number of destinations within a short time regardless of the contents of the mail, etc. In addition, since the mail addressed to the activated destination machine is preferentially transmitted, the time loss at the time of transmitting the mail can be reduced.

Further, among the mails requested to be sent, the mails confirmed to be sent are accumulated in the spool of the mail server at the time of sending the mails without waiting for the periodical sending of the spool mails. Since the e-mail having the same e-mail address is also sent, the throughput for the entire sent mail can be increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a specific example of the operation of the electronic mail system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 communication device 2 Data processing device 3 storage devices 10 E-mail sending device 11 Transmission processing unit 12 Mail communication terminal 13 network 21 Search unit (also control unit) 22 Data write processing unit 23 Data deletion processing unit 31 E-mail address storage 32 Mail address temporary storage unit 33 Spool mail storage

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04L 12/58 G06F 13/00

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electronic mail having a communication means, a data processing means, and an electronic mail transmission device having a storage unit, and having a plurality of mail communication terminals connected to the electronic mail transmission device via a network. In the system, the storage unit stores a mail address of a mail addressed to a mail communication terminal that has been empirically shown to be able to receive mail, and a spool that stores mail that has failed to be sent. A mail storage unit is provided, and the data processing means is for the current mail for which a transmission request is made
Alternatively, of the two or more destination email addresses, the current email is sent to the email address stored in the email address storage unit, and if the transmission fails, the email address related to the transmission failure from the email address storage unit. And a first transmission means for deleting the first transmission to a mail address that is not stored in the mail address storage unit among the mail addresses of one or more destinations of the current mail for which the transmission request is made. Second sending means for sending the current mail after the operation of the means, means for storing the mail address successfully sent by the second sending means in the mail address storage unit, and the first and second sending means Means for storing the present mail, which has failed to be sent by the method described above, in the spool mail storage unit together with a mail address. E-mail system. 2. The first and second sending means are stored in the spool mail storage unit together with the current mail at the time of sending the current mail, with the same mail address as a destination mail address. 2. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail system also sends an email. 3. An electronic mail transmitting device, comprising: a communication means, a data processing means, and a storage portion, for transmitting an electronic mail to a plurality of mail communication terminals connected via a network, wherein the storage portion comprises: The data processing means includes: a mail address storage unit that stores a mail address of a mail addressed to a mail communication terminal that is empirically shown to be able to receive mail; and a spool mail storage unit that stores a mail that has failed to be sent. Is one of the current emails requested to be sent
Alternatively, of the two or more destination email addresses, the email is sent to the email address stored in the email address storage unit, and if the transmission fails, the email address related to the transmission failure is sent from the email address storage unit. The first sending means for deleting and the first sending means for the mail address not stored in the mail address storage unit among the mail addresses of one or more destinations of the current mail for which the transmission request is made. By the second sending means for sending the current mail after the operation of, the means for storing the mail address successfully sent by the second sending means in the mail address storage section, and the first and second sending means. Means for storing the current mail whose transmission has failed in the spool mail storage unit together with the mail address. Child mail sending device. 4. The first and second sending means are stored in the spool mail storage unit at the time of sending the current mail, together with the current mail, with the same mail address as a destination mail address. 4. The electronic mail transmitting device according to claim 3, wherein the electronic mail transmitting device also transmits an email. 5. An e-mail transmission method for transmitting an e-mail to a plurality of mail communication terminals connected via a network, wherein one or more destination e-mail addresses of the current e-mail requested to be sent. A first sending step of sending the current mail to the mail address stored in the mail address storage unit and deleting the mail address relating to the transmission failure from the mail address storage unit if the sending fails; There is a second sending step of sending the current mail after the first sending step to a mail address that is not stored in the mail address storage unit of one or more destination mail addresses , After the second sending step, the email address that was successfully sent by the second sending step is the email address A step of storing the 憶部, the first and second
A step of storing the current mail, which has failed to be transmitted by the transmission step of 1. in the spool mail storage section together with the mail address ,. 6. When the current mail is transmitted in the first and second transmission steps, the current mail and the current mail are stored in the spool mail storage unit with the same mail address as the destination mail address. 6. The method of transmitting an electronic mail according to claim 5, further comprising transmitting an email.