JP4716136B2 - E-mail storage method, e-mail reproduction method, e-mail system, and e-mail storage / reproduction program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for saving an e-mail, and more particularly, to a method for saving an e-mail with a reduced storage capacity.

  Electronic mail (hereinafter, simply referred to as mail) has become widespread as an indispensable means of communication not only among individuals but also in organizations such as companies. Particularly in recent years, contents related to important operations such as money transactions and approval processes are often sent and received by e-mail. E-mails related to such important work should not be deleted immediately. All these emails need to be stored for a certain period of time as a trail in case of an emergency and also from a compliance standpoint. The preservation period is, for example, the past 3 years, 5 years or more.

  To do so, it is necessary to save the full text of all emails sent and received by all members of the organization in the past few years. And all stored emails must be searchable and visible quickly and easily. In order to realize this, a huge capacity storage device and a highly functional document search system are required.

  Further, not only personal computers (PCs) but also small terminals such as mobile phones and PDAs may be used as mail clients. However, these small terminals have a smaller storage capacity than PCs, and are limited in computing power. Therefore, a small terminal cannot store a larger number of mails than a PC, and it may be difficult to quickly and easily search and refer to the stored mails. Therefore, in order to store an enormous number of mails, there is a need for a mail system that can effectively compress mail text data and efficiently read the compressed text data.

  The following Patent Documents 1 and 2 are disclosed as techniques for compressing mail body data. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of transmitting identification data together with reply data instead of citation data in a mail text. Patent Document 2 discloses a technique of managing duplicate mail contents included in a reply mail as citation information and deleting them from the electronic mail storage means. Details thereof will be described next.

  FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram showing a method of compressing text data in the mail system of Patent Document 2. FIG. 9A shows a mail 402 that is a reply to the mail 401 and a mail 403 that is a reply to the mail 402. In the mail 402, the text of the mail 401 that is the reply target is quoted in the text as a quoted portion 404 with a quote symbol “>” at the beginning of the line. In the mail 403, the text of the mail 402 that is the subject of the reply is quoted in the text as a quoted portion 405 with a quotation mark at the beginning of the line. Also, the quoted portion from the mail 401 included in the quoted portion 405 is a double quoted portion 406 with a double quote symbol at the beginning of the line.

  Due to the nature of mail, it is natural that the text of the mail to be replied to is included in the text as a quoted part. In particular, in companies and the like, it is common to quote the full text of the reply target email for reasons such as leaving behind a discussion. Also, as a result of the ongoing discussion, full-text citations are often repeated over and over. Since the text quoted in the mail is the same as the reply target mail, if the mail is stored as it is, the duplicate text is stored a plurality of times.

  For this reason, in the invention of Patent Document 2, the same text generated by citation is not stored a plurality of times, and duplication is omitted to compress the mail body data. FIG. 9B shows a mail 402 that is a reply to the mail 401 and a mail 403 that is a reply to the mail 402 in a state where the text data is compressed by the method of Patent Document 2. In the mail 402, the quoted portion 404 from the text of the mail 401 that is the reply target is shown as a quoted message number 404a and a quoted line range 404b. This is because the quoted portion 404 is indicated in the form of “the XX to XX lines of the mail 401”, so that the data amount can be reduced compared to the conventional quoted portion 404.

  Further, in FIG. 9B, the quoted portion 405 and the double quoted portion 406 of the mail 403 are similarly converted into a quoted message number 405a and a quoted line from the sentence of the mail 402 that is the reply target. This is shown as a range 405b. The double quote portion 406 included in the quote portion 405 is shown in the form that the quote portion 404 from the mail 401 is further included in the quote line range 405b from the mail 402.

  FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram showing a method for reconstructing the full text of the mail 403 in the technique of Patent Document 2 shown in FIG. In the method shown in FIG. 9B, the duplicated citation generated by citation is omitted, and the mail body data is compressed. In order to reconstruct the entire text of the mail 403, as shown in FIG. 10, the former is read from the recorded data of the mail 402 at the quotation part 405 and the double quotation part 406 that are not included in the recording data of the mail 403, and the latter is Read from the recorded data of the mail 401.

  Note that the technique of Patent Document 1 does not describe a quoted portion in the body of a mail to be sent in order to reduce the amount of the body of a mail sent via the Internet, and instead uses the ID of the mail of the citation source. The data related to the line range is described at the end of the text. The receiving side reads the text of the original mail based on the ID and line range of the original mail described at the end of the text in the same manner as in Patent Document 2 shown in FIG. The document discloses that the entire text of the mail is reconstructed and displayed.

JP 2001-14229 A JP 2000-194617 A

  In the background art described above, in both cases of Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, if full-text citations are repeated over and over again, all of the citation targets Need to read and read the email. For example, in order to reconstruct the full text of a mail including citations from 10 mails, it is necessary to read the citation part from all the recorded data for 10 mails to be quoted, which requires high-speed processing. There are drawbacks. Especially when a small terminal with limited computing power is used as the mail client, or when the data transfer speed between the mail client and the storage device is low, the processing power is insufficient to perform such processing. There is a drawback that it is difficult.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to save an e-mail body data, an e-mail reproduction method, an e-mail system, which can efficiently save the body data of the e-mail without requiring high-speed processing such as calculation or data transfer speed, And to provide a program.

  In order to achieve the above object, an electronic mail storage method according to the present invention is a computer system having an electronic mail receiving means, a storage means, and a control means for controlling the operation of each unit. A method for saving mail, wherein the e-mail receiving means receives a new e-mail, then the control means saves the full text of the new e-mail together with the message number in the storage means, and then the control means stores If it is determined whether or not the full-text stored email in which the full text is stored in the storage means is quoted in the full text, and the full-text stored email is quoted in the full text of the new email, the control means According to the above, the stored contents of the full-text stored e-mail are replaced with the message number and citation hierarchy of the new e-mail and re-saved in the storage means. That.

  In order to achieve the above object, an electronic mail reproducing method according to the present invention is a computer system having a storage means, a display means, and a control means for controlling the operation of each unit, and stored in the storage means. A method for reproducing an e-mail, wherein the control means reads out the replay target e-mail data from the storage means, and the control means determines whether or not the replay target e-mail data includes a citation message number and a citation hierarchy. If the e-mail data to be reproduced includes the citation message number and the citation hierarchy, the control means reads the citation e-mail data corresponding to the citation message number from the storage means, and then the control means reads from the full text of the citation e-mail data. The present invention is characterized in that a quotation corresponding to the citation hierarchy is extracted and the quotation is displayed on the display means.

  In order to achieve the above object, an e-mail system according to the present invention includes e-mail receiving means for receiving a new e-mail, storage means for storing the full text of a new e-mail and a full-text stored e-mail together with a message number, and these Control means for controlling the operation of each part, and judges whether or not the full text stored email is quoted in the full text of the new email, and the full text stored email in the full text of the new email Is stored in the full-text stored electronic mail with the message number and citation hierarchy of the new electronic mail, and is stored again in the storage means.

  In order to achieve the above object, another electronic mail system according to the present invention comprises a storage means for storing a stored electronic mail together with a message number, a display means for displaying the full text of the stored electronic mail, and operations of these sections. And when the reproduction target email read from the storage means includes the quote message number and the quote hierarchy, the quote email data corresponding to the quote message number is read from the storage means, An e-mail expanding means for extracting a citation corresponding to the citation hierarchy from the full text of the e-mail data and displaying it on the display means is provided.

In order to achieve the above object, an e-mail storage program according to the present invention provides a computer for controlling the operation of each part of an e-mail system having an e-mail receiving means and a storage means. The function to control the operation to receive, the function to save the full text of the new e-mail together with the message number in the storage means, and the full text stored e-mail in which the full text is stored in the storage means is quoted in the full text of the new e-mail If the full-text stored email is quoted in the full text of the new email, the stored content of the full-text stored email is replaced with the message number and citation hierarchy of the new email. And a function of re-saving in the storage means.

  In order to achieve the above object, an e-mail reproduction program according to the present invention has a function of reading out reproduction-target e-mail data from a storage unit to a computer for operation control of each unit provided in an e-mail system having a storage unit and a display unit. A function for determining whether or not the reproduction target e-mail data includes a citation message number and a citation hierarchy; and if the reproduction target e-mail data includes a citation message number and a citation hierarchy, the storage means converts the citation message number to the citation message number. Performing a function of reading out the corresponding quoted email data, a function of extracting a quoted sentence corresponding to the quoted hierarchy from the entire text of the quoted email data, and a function of controlling an operation of displaying the quoted sentence on the display means It is characterized by.

  Since the present invention is configured to replace the stored contents of the full-text stored e-mail with the message number and citation hierarchy of the new e-mail and re-save it in the storage means as described above, such as high-speed computation and data transfer speed Can be efficiently compressed and stored in the e-mail body data. This provides an unprecedented superior e-mail storage method, e-mail replay method, e-mail system, and program that can effectively operate with a small processing capacity against an increase in the amount of e-mail information can do.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the mail system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the mail server 2, the transfer server 3 that manages all mails sent and received by the mail server 2, the storage device 4 that stores all mails managed by the transfer server 3, and the plurality of clients 5 Are connected to each other by a LAN 6. The mail server 2 can send and receive mail to and from other mail servers via the Internet 1 by the electronic mail sending / receiving unit 21. The client 5 is a terminal operated by the user such as a PC, a mobile phone, and a PDA, and each has a display 51.

  In the transfer server 3, the operation control unit 10 including a CPU and a RAM controls functions of the mail compression unit 11, the mail expansion unit 12, the web server unit 13, the webmail management unit 14, the quotation mark setting unit 15, and the like. And run. Each user accesses the web server unit 13 of the transfer server 3 from the client 5 via a web browser (not shown) or dedicated client software (not shown), and inputs his / her ID and password to the web. By logging in to the mail management unit 14, it is possible to read the mail that has arrived at the mail management section 14, and to create a new mail and send it.

  The web server unit 13 creates a display screen based on the result of processing performed in the transfer server 3 and displays the display screen on the display 51 of the client 5. The mail compression unit 11, the mail expansion unit 12, and the quote symbol setting unit 15 will be described later. In principle, in the present embodiment, the user does not save mail in the client 5, and all mail is saved in the storage device 4.

  FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the contents of mail stored in the storage device 4 disclosed in FIG. FIG. 2A shows a mail 102 that is a reply to the mail 101 and a mail 103 that is a reply to the mail 102. The mails 101 to 103 form one thread (topic flow). Message numbers 1, 2, and 3 are assigned to the mails 101, 102, and 103, respectively.

  In the mail 102, the entire text of the mail 101 that is the reply target is quoted in the text as a quoted part 105 with a quote symbol “>” at the beginning of the line. In the mail 103, the entire text of the mail 102 that is the reply target is quoted in the text as a quoted portion 106 with a quotation mark at the beginning of the line. The quoted portion from the mail 101 included in the quoted portion 106 is a double quoted portion 107 with double quoted symbols at the beginning of the line. The quote portion 106 is equivalent to a sentence in which one quote symbol is added to the beginning of every line of the mail 102. The double quotation part 107 is equivalent to a sentence in which two quotation marks are added to the beginning of every line of the mail 101.

  FIG. 2B shows processing performed by the mail compression unit 11 for each mail text when the mails 101 to 103 are stored in the storage device 4. The mail 103 which is the latest mail in this thread is stored in the storage device 4 as mail data 113 as it is without any modification to the text. However, the entire mail 102 is not stored as the mail data 112 in a state where the quote message number 115a is “3” and the quote hierarchy 115b is “1”. The mail 101 is also stored as mail data 111 in a state in which the quote message number 114a is “3” and the quote hierarchy 114b is “2”.

  For the operational purpose of the mail system, it is necessary to use the symbol “>” as a quoting symbol, and to reply to the mail by quoting the full text of the mail to be replied with the same quotation mark at the beginning of the line. It is established as a rule. The citation hierarchy here indicates how many stages of the previous email in the thread are cited. Since the symbol “>” is previously set as the quote symbol in the quote symbol setting unit 15, the transfer server 3 operates using “>” as the quote symbol in the present embodiment. Note that as the means for storing the character set as the quotation mark by the quotation mark setting unit 15, any storage means physically possible on the LAN 6 such as the inside of the transfer server 3 or the storage device 4 can be selected.

  In the text of the mail 103, the number of repeated quotation marks at the beginning of the line represents the quotation hierarchy as it is. The portion where the quotation mark at the beginning of the line is one or more is a quotation from the mail 102 that is one stage before the mail 103. The portion where the quotation mark at the beginning of the line is double or more is a quotation from the mail 101 that is two stages before the mail 103. Here, the portion where the quotation mark at the beginning of the line is more than one includes the portion newly written in the mail 102 and the entire text of the mail 101 quoted by the mail 102, and is therefore equal to the above-described quotation portion 106. Similarly, the portion where the quotation mark at the beginning of the line is more than double is equivalent to the double quotation portion 107 described above.

  For this reason, in the mail data 112 corresponding to the mail 102, the portion (quoted portion 106) of the quote hierarchy 115 b = “1” or more in the text of the mail data 113 represented as the message number 115 a = “3” is the mail. It represents that it corresponds to the whole sentence of 102. In the mail data 113 in which the mail 103 is recorded as it is, if the quote portion 106 having a single quotation mark at the beginning of the line is extracted and the quotation marks are removed one by one from the beginning of the whole line, the entire text of the mail 102 can be obtained. it can.

  Similarly, the mail data 111 corresponding to the mail 101 is a portion of the text of the mail data 113 represented as the message number 114a = “3”, which is higher than the quote hierarchy 114b = “2” (double quote portion 107). Is equivalent to the full text of the mail 101. In the mail data 113, by extracting the double quotation part 107 whose quotation mark at the beginning of the line is double or more and removing two quotation marks from the beginning of the whole line, the whole sentence of the mail 101 can be obtained.

  Here, it is assumed that a mail 104 that is a reply to the mail 103 is newly received by the mail server 2. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing a process performed by the mail compression unit 11 disclosed in FIG. 1 for each mail data when the newly received mail 104 is stored in the storage device 4. The mail 104 belongs to the same thread as the mails 101 to 103. The entire text of the mail 104 is newly stored in the storage device 4 as mail data 124 to which the message number 4 is assigned.

  In the mail 104, the entire text of the mail 103 that is the reply target is quoted in the text as a quoted portion 125 with one or more quotation marks at the beginning of the line. The quoted part from the mail 102 included in the quoted part 125 is a double-quoted part 126 with a double or more quote symbol at the beginning of the line. The quoted portion from the mail 101 included in the double quoted portion 126 is a triple quoted portion 127 with a triple or more quote symbol at the beginning of the line. The quote part 125 is equivalent to a sentence in which one quote symbol is added to the beginning of each line of the mail 103. The double quotation part 126 is equivalent to a sentence in which two quotation marks are added to the beginning of all lines of the mail 102. The triple quotation part 127 is equivalent to a sentence in which three quotation marks are added to the beginning of all lines of the mail 101.

  For this reason, the mail 103 is overwritten and saved as mail data 123 in a state where the quote message number 130a is “4” and the quote hierarchy 130b is “1”. The mail 102 is overwritten and saved as mail data 122 in a state where the quote message number 129a is “4” and the quote hierarchy 129b is “2”. The mail 101 is overwritten and saved as mail data 121 in a state where the quote message number 128a is “4” and the quote hierarchy 128b is “3”.

  FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing processing in which the mail expansion unit 12 disclosed in FIG. 1 obtains the full text of the mails 101 to 104 from the mail data 124 shown in FIG. Since the mail data 124 stores the full text of the mail 104, when the mail read command from the client 5 is designated to read the mail 104, the mail data 124 may be displayed as it is on the display screen of the client 5. .

  When the mail 103 is designated to be read, the mail data 123 corresponding to the mail 103 is recorded with a quote message number 130a of “4” and a quote hierarchy 130b of “1”. In this case, from the mail data 124 corresponding to the quote message number “4”, the mail expansion unit 12 extracts the quote part 125 with one or more quote symbols at the beginning of the line, and from each line of the quote part 125. Remove quotes one by one. As a result of this processing, the quoted portion 125 becomes the entire text of the mail 103, and this may be displayed on the display screen of the client 5.

  When the mail 102 is designated to be read, the mail data 122 corresponding to the mail 102 is recorded with the quote message number 129a being “4” and the quote hierarchy 129b being “2”, and therefore corresponds to the quote message number “4”. From the mail data 124 to be sent, the mail expansion unit 12 extracts a double quote part 126 having a double or more quotation mark at the beginning of the line, and removes two quotation marks from each line of the double quotation part 126. To do. As a result of this processing, the double quotation part 126 becomes the entire text of the mail 102, and this may be displayed on the display screen of the client 5.

  When the mail 101 is designated to be read, the mail data 121 corresponding to the mail 101 is recorded with the quote message number 128a of “4” and the quote hierarchy 128b of “3”, and therefore corresponds to the quote message number “4”. From the mail data 124 to be processed, the mail expanding unit 12 extracts a triple quote portion 127 having triple or more quote symbols at the beginning of the line, and removes three quote symbols from the beginning of each triple quote portion 127. As a result of this processing, the triple quote portion 127 becomes the entire text of the mail 101, and this may be displayed on the display screen of the client 5.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process performed by the mail compression unit 11 disclosed in FIG. 1 under the control of the operation control unit 10 when the mail server 2 receives a new mail (hereinafter referred to as a new mail). When the mail compression unit 11 is activated (step S201), the operation control unit 10 waits for a new mail (step S203). When the mail server 2 receives the new mail and transfers it to the transfer server 3, the mail compression unit 11 assigns a message number to the transferred new mail and stores it in the storage device 4 (step S205). The message number is unique in all mails managed by the transfer server 3.

  Here, it is determined whether or not the text of the stored new mail quotes the stored mail already stored in the storage device 4 (step S207). If the saved mail is not quoted, the process returns to the state of waiting for a new mail in step S203. If it is a quote for the saved mail, the data of the corresponding saved mail is overwritten and saved with the quote message number and the quote hierarchy of the saved new mail as shown in FIG. 3 (step S209), and step S203. Return to waiting for new mail. The process of step S209 is performed for all mails belonging to the same thread as the stored new mail.

  The operation of determining whether or not the new mail quotes the stored mail in step S207 is whether or not the full text of the new mail quotes the full text of the stored mail in the stored mail. Can be judged by. Mail that has been saved in its full text in saved mail can be determined to be the latest mail in the thread, so if the full text of a new mail quotes the full text, it belongs to that thread It can be determined that it is the latest mail.

  More specifically, if a sentence with a quotation mark added at the beginning of each line of a mail in which the full text is stored is included in the full text of the new mail, the full text of the new mail is stored. It can be determined that the email is quoted. On the other hand, when the sentence extracted from the new mail and the quotation mark is removed one by one from the beginning of each line is equal to the mail in which the full text is stored, the new mail has the full text stored. It may be determined that the email is quoted.

  The operation content of each step according to the flowchart described with reference to FIG. 5 can be configured to be executed as a program that operates on a computer provided in advance in the operation control unit 10.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process performed by the mail expansion unit 12 disclosed in FIG. 1 under the control of the operation control unit 10 when the transfer server 3 reads a mail stored in the storage device 4. When the mail expansion unit 12 is activated (step S251), the operation control unit 10 waits for a mail read command from the client 5 (step S253). If there is a mail read command, the mail expansion unit 12 reads mail data corresponding to the message number designated by the command from the storage device 4 (step S255).

  Here, it is determined whether or not the mail data read in step S255 includes a quote message number and a quote hierarchy (step S257). If the mail data does not include the quote message number and the quote hierarchy, the mail data is the latest mail in the thread, and the full text is stored. Display on the display screen (step S259) and return to the state of waiting for the command of step S253.

  If the mail data read in step S255 includes the quote message number and the quote hierarchy, the mail expansion unit 12 reads the mail data corresponding to the quote message number, and the part corresponding to the quote hierarchy from among the mail data Is extracted (step S261). At that time, the number of quotation marks at the beginning of the line is removed from each line of the extracted quotation portion by the number corresponding to the quotation hierarchy. As a result, the mail expanding unit 12 obtains the full text of the mail corresponding to the message number specified by the mail read command in step S253, and displays it on the display screen of the client 5 (step S263). Return to waiting for command.

  The operation content of each step according to the flowchart described with reference to FIG. 6 can be configured to be executed as a program that operates on a computer provided in advance in the operation control unit 10.

  In the technique of Patent Document 2 shown in FIG. 9B and FIG. 10 described above, it is necessary to read by referring to all mail data to be cited. The same applies to the technique of Patent Document 1. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, as can be seen from the flowchart of FIG. 6, the mail expansion unit 12 refers to one or two pieces of mail data, and even if the mail is repeatedly quoted. The full text can be obtained and displayed for any mail stored in the storage device 4. Therefore, even in an environment where the computing power of the client 5 and the data transfer speed of the LAN 6 are restricted, the duplicate citation is omitted, the mail body data is efficiently compressed and saved, and the compressed text is saved. The full text of the received mail can be easily reproduced.

[Second Embodiment]
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the mail system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a mail server 2 that can send and receive mail with other mail servers via the Internet 1 and a client 305 that reads and manages mail from the mail server 2 are connected to each other via a LAN 6. Yes. The client 305 includes an operation control unit 301 including a CPU and a RAM, a mail client program 303 that is a program for managing e-mail, a storage device 304 that stores all mail managed by the client 305, and a display 351. And built-in.

  The mail client program 303 executed by the operation control unit 301 has functions such as a mail compression unit 311, a mail expansion unit 312, a mail management unit 313, and a quote symbol setting unit 314. The user of the client 305 can start the mail client program 303 to read the mail that has arrived at the client 305, and can create a new mail and send it via the mail server 2. In this embodiment, all emails sent and received by the user are stored in the client 305.

    The mail management unit 313 performs functions such as transmission / reception of mail data with the electronic mail transmission / reception unit 21 and display of the full text of the mail read by the mail expansion unit 312 on the display 351. The quote symbol setting unit 314 has the same function as the quote symbol setting unit 15 in the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As the means for storing the character set as the quotation mark by the quotation mark setting unit 314, any storage means that is physically possible inside the client 305, such as the storage device 304, can be selected.

  The mail compressing unit 311 compresses the data capacity of the mail stored in the storage device 304 by omitting the overlapping citations by the same method as the mail compressing unit 11 in the first embodiment. The mail expansion unit 312 reproduces the full text of the mail before being compressed from the compressed mail data stored in the storage device 304 by the same method as the mail expansion unit 12 in the first embodiment. In any case, the content of the processing actually performed is the same as that of the first embodiment, except that the main body and the target performing the processing are changed.

  As can be seen from the description of the first and second embodiments of the present invention, the mail system to which the present invention can be applied may be composed of a single device such as a PC. You may be comprised with the some apparatus connected by the network etc. In addition, a system that reproduces the entire mail from the stored mail data does not necessarily have a function of creating a new mail or transmitting / receiving the mail.

  In the above-described embodiment, the quotation marks and the quoting method have been unified in the mail system operation rules. However, various miscellaneous mail environments are actually used in, for example, mail client software and its settings. For example, in addition to “>”, characters such as “|” and “:”, or single-byte characters “>”, “|”, “:”, and the like may be used as quotation marks. For this reason, as e-mail exchange continues, sentences often include a plurality of quotation marks and quotation methods.

  FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing the contents of a mail stored in the storage device disclosed in FIG. 1 and FIG. FIG. 8 shows a mail 102b that is a reply to the mail 101b and a mail 103b that is a reply to the mail 102b. The quote portion 105b from the mail 101b included in the mail 102b uses “:” as a quote symbol. The quote portion 106b from the mail 102b included in the mail 103b uses “|” as a quote symbol. The double quotation part 107b from the mail 101b included in the quotation part 106b has "|:" at the beginning of the line where two types of quotation marks overlap.

  In that case, a plurality of characters that can be used as quotation marks such as “|”, “:”, “>”, “|”, and “:” in addition to “>” are displayed in the quotation symbol setting unit 15 (or 314). It is good to register. If any of these registered characters is used at the beginning of the mail body, it is recognized as a quote symbol equivalent to “>”, and the first and second of the present invention are the same as in the case of “>”. The operation described in the embodiment can be performed. However, it is desirable to make it an operational rule not to use uncommon quotation marks and citation methods as much as possible so that the conditions for judging quotation marks are not too complicated.

  Although the present invention has been described with the specific embodiments shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings, and is known so far as long as the effects of the present invention are achieved. It goes without saying that any configuration can be adopted.

  Any electronic device and system that stores and displays mail can be used. It is not limited to the one having the function of creating new mail and sending / receiving mail.

It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the mail system which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the content of the mail preserve | saved at the memory | storage device disclosed in FIG. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the process which the mail compression part disclosed in FIG. 1 performs with respect to each mail data, when the newly received mail is preserve | saved at a memory | storage device. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the process in which the mail expansion | deployment part disclosed in FIG. 1 acquires the full text of mail from mail data. It is a flowchart which shows the process which the mail compression part disclosed in FIG. 1 performs when a mail server receives a new mail. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by the mail expansion unit disclosed in FIG. 1 when the transfer server 3 reads a mail stored in a storage device. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the mail system which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the content of the mail preserve | saved in the memory | storage device disclosed in FIG. 1 and FIG. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the compression method of text data in the mail system in related technology. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the reconstruction method of the full text of mail in the mail system disclosed in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Internet 2 Mail server 3 Transfer server 4, 304 Storage device (storage means)
5,305 Client 6 LAN
10, 301 Operation control unit (control means)
11, 311 Mail compression section (Mail compression means)
12, 312 Mail expander (Mail expander)
13 Web server unit 14 Web mail management unit 15, 314 Quote symbol setting unit 21 E-mail transmission / reception unit (e-mail receiving means)
51, 351 Display (display means)
101, 102, 103, 104, 101b, 102b, 103b Mail 105, 106, 105b, 106b, 125 Quote part 107, 107b, 126 Double quote part 111, 112, 113, 121, 122, 123, 124 Mail data 114a 115a, 128a, 129a, 130a Citation message number 114b, 115b, 128b, 129b, 130b Citation layer 127 Triple quotation part 303 Mail client program 313 Mail management part

Claims (14)

In a computer system having an electronic mail receiving means, a storage means, and a control means for controlling the operation of each of these units, a method for storing an electronic mail in the storage means,
The e-mail receiving means receives a new e-mail;
Next, the control means stores the full text of the new email together with a message number in the storage means,
Next, the control means determines whether or not the full text stored e-mail in which the full text is stored in the storage means is cited in the full text of the new e-mail,
When the full text stored email is quoted in the full text of the new email, the control means replaces the stored content of the full text stored email with the message number and the quote hierarchy of the new email. A method for storing e-mails, wherein the storage unit stores the e-mails again.   When the full-text stored electronic mail is quoted in the full text of the new electronic mail, the control means stores the quotation storage stored in the storage means as the message number and citation hierarchy of the full-text stored electronic mail. 2. The method of storing an e-mail according to claim 1, wherein the stored content of the completed e-mail is replaced with the message number and citation hierarchy of the new e-mail and re-saved in the storage means.   3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit recognizes, as the citation hierarchy, the number of citation symbols repeated at the beginning of the body of the new electronic mail after storing the new electronic mail. How to save mail. The computer system has quotation mark setting means for preliminarily storing one or more characters recognized as quotation marks;
3. The method for storing an e-mail according to claim 1, wherein the control means recognizes, as the citation hierarchy, the number of repetitions of the citation symbol at the beginning of the body of the new e-mail.   When the control means includes in the new e-mail a sentence with one quotation mark added to the beginning of each line of the full-text stored e-mail, or from the new e-mail body to the beginning of the line The full text is included in the full text of the new e-mail in any case where the full text stored e-mail contains a sentence in which a quoted line is extracted and one quotation mark is removed from each line. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the stored electronic mail is determined to be cited.   The computer system includes a quote symbol setting unit that stores in advance one or more characters that are recognized as a quote symbol, and the control unit sets the quote symbol at the beginning of each line of the body of the full-text stored email. Sentences added one by one are included in the new e-mail, or sentences in which the quotation mark is extracted at the beginning of the line from the main body of the new e-mail and the quotation mark is removed from each line one by one Is included in the full-text stored electronic mail, it is determined that the full-text stored electronic mail is cited in the full text of the new electronic mail. Item 3. The method for storing e-mails according to Item 1 or 2. A computer system having a storage means, a display means, and a control means for controlling the operation of each unit, and a method for playing back an email stored in the storage means,
The control means reads the reproduction target e-mail data from the storage means,
Next, the control means determines whether or not the reproduction target e-mail data includes a citation message number and a citation hierarchy,
If the reproduction target email data includes a quote message number and a quote hierarchy, the control means reads the quote email data corresponding to the quote message number from the storage means,
Next, the electronic mail reproducing method is characterized in that the control means extracts the quote text corresponding to the quote hierarchy from the full text of the quote email data and displays the quote text on the display means.   The control means detects a line in which the number of repeated citation symbols at the beginning of the body of the cited e-mail data is equal to or higher than the citation hierarchy, and extracts this as a citation corresponding to the citation hierarchy. The method for reproducing an e-mail according to claim 7.   9. The method for reproducing an e-mail according to claim 8, wherein the computer system comprises a quote symbol setting means for storing in advance one or more characters recognized as the quote symbol.   10. The computer system according to claim 7, wherein the computer system removes a number of citation symbols corresponding to the citation hierarchy from the beginning of each line of the extracted citation and displays the citation symbol on the display unit. How to replay the described email. An e-mail receiving means for receiving a new e-mail, a storage means for storing the full text of the new e-mail and a full-text stored e-mail together with a message number, and a control means for controlling the operation of each of these parts,
It is determined whether or not the full text stored email is quoted in the full text of the new email, and if the full text stored email is quoted in the full text of the new email, the full text An e-mail system comprising a mail compression unit that replaces the stored content of a stored e-mail with the message number and citation hierarchy of the new e-mail and resaves the data in the storage unit. Storage means for storing the stored electronic mail together with the message number, display means for displaying the full text of the stored electronic mail, and control means for controlling the operation of each of these parts,
If the reproduction target email read from the storage means includes a quote message number and a quote hierarchy, the quote email data corresponding to the quote message number is read from the storage means, and the full text of the quote email data is read out. An e-mail system comprising: e-mail expansion means for extracting a citation corresponding to the citation hierarchy and displaying it on the display means. In each part operation control computer provided in an electronic mail system having an electronic mail receiving means and a storage means,
A function for controlling the operation of the e-mail receiving means for receiving a new e-mail;
A function for storing the full text of the new email together with a message number in the storage means;
A function for determining whether or not a full-text stored electronic mail in which the full text is stored in the storage means is cited in the full text of the new electronic mail;
If the full-text stored e-mail is quoted in the full text of the new e-mail, the stored content of the full-text stored e-mail is replaced with the message number and citation hierarchy of the new e-mail and stored in the storage means. An e-mail storage program that executes a function of re-save. In each part operation control computer provided in an electronic mail system having a storage means and a display means,
A function of reading reproduction target e-mail data from the storage means;
A function of determining whether the reproduction target e-mail data includes a citation message number and a citation hierarchy;
If the reproduction target email data includes a quote message number and a quote hierarchy, a function of reading quote email data corresponding to the quote message number from the storage means;
A function of extracting a quote corresponding to the quote hierarchy from the full text of the quote email data;
And a function for controlling an operation of displaying the quoted text on the display means.

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