Mail system and relay device

Abstract

To match the delivery state of outside mails and the delivery state of inside mails even when only the outside mails in a broadcast mail are temporarily held in a mail processing apparatus.SOLUTION: When transmission of a broadcast mail including both inside users and outside users as destinations is requested from an information terminal 20, a relay device 10 holds the broadcast mail, starts holding transmission of the inside mails to inside users, copies outside mails addressed only to the outside users from the broadcast mail and requests transmission from a mail processing apparatus 30, when determining that a request for transmission of the outside mails is held in the mail processing apparatus 30 and the holding of the outside mails is canceled in the mail processing apparatus 30, cancels the holding of transmission of the inside mails corresponding to the outside mails for which the holding is canceled, and copies the inside mails from the stored broadcast mail and requests transmission from the mail processing apparatus 30.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a mail holding technology for temporarily holding mail for which a transmission request has been made. [Background technology]

[0002] Some email systems that process emails exchanged by users belonging to a specific group in a company or organization have a function that temporarily holds emails requested by internal users belonging to the group but addressed to external users, allowing the sender to double-check for errors in the destination email address, attachments, etc. before requesting relay (send request) of the email to a mail server on the communication network.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 proposes a mail system that temporarily holds external mail addressed to external users and returns the external mail only to the sender user so that the sender user can reconfirm the content. This allows the sender user to reconfirm the content of the returned external mail in the same way as with received mail addressed to the sender user, and if there are no errors, they can simply instruct the mail system to send it, or if there are errors, they can cancel the transmission and send a new email with the corrections. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-277976 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In a mail system that applies the mail holding technology described in the aforementioned Patent Document 1, external mail addressed to external users is temporarily held, but internal mail addressed to internal users is not held. This is because the frequency of internal mail transmissions is high, and the processing and storage space required for holding mail becomes enormous, causing an increase in the cost of the entire mail system.

[0006] On the other hand, emails sent by a user include broadcast emails with multiple different email addresses set as destinations, and in such cases, the destinations can include not only external users but also internal users.

[0007] Therefore, in a mail system that applies the mail holding technology described in the aforementioned Patent Document 1, in the case of a broadcast mail that includes both external users and internal users as recipients, the external mail addressed to the external users is temporarily held. However, the internal mail addressed to the internal users is not held but is sent immediately, which causes a problem in that the mail holding process for the external mail and the internal mail is inconsistent.

[0008] Therefore, if the sender user finds an error in the email content after checking it and cancels the sending of the email, the external email will be canceled, but the internal email containing the error will be spread to internal users. Also, even if there is no error, the internal email will be delivered before the external email, which can cause a difference in delivery timing between the external email and the internal email, which can cause problems such as discrepancies between the external users and internal users who are the destinations of the mass email.

[0009] The present invention is intended to solve such problems, and aims to provide a mail holding technology that can match the delivery status of external mail and internal mail even when only external mail among broadcast mails is temporarily held in a mail processing device. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] In order to achieve the above object, the mail system according to the present invention comprises a mail processing device configured to process mail exchanged by internal users belonging to a predetermined group and to make a mail transmission request to a mail server, and a relay device configured to relay and forward to said mail processing device a request for sending and receiving mail from an information terminal of said internal user connected thereto, and to relay and forward mail delivered from said mail processing device to said information terminal, and when a transmission request is made from said information terminal for a broadcast mail whose destinations include said internal users and external users other than said internal users, said mail processing device relays external mail addressed to said external users to said mail server. The relay device is configured to suspend a transmission request to the mail server and, in response to an instruction from the sender of the broadcast mail, release the suspension of the transmission request to the mail server, and when a transmission request for the broadcast mail is received from the information terminal, the relay device stores the broadcast mail and suspends a transmission request to the mail processing device for internal mail addressed to the internal user, copies external mail addressed only to the internal user from the broadcast mail and requests the mail processing device to send it, and, when it determines that the suspension of the external mail has been released, copies internal mail addressed only to the internal user from the stored broadcast mail and requests the mail processing device to send it.

[0011] In addition, in one configuration example of the above mail system, when a request to send the mass mail is made from the information terminal, the relay device is configured to send a request to send the external mail with the destination of a specified external user added to the mail processing device, and to determine that the hold on the external mail has been released based on the external mail being sent to the destination of the specified external user.

[0012] In addition, in one configuration example of the above mail system, the relay device is configured to release the hold on the internal mail when a predetermined time has elapsed after starting to hold the request to send the internal mail to the mail processing device. [Effects of the Invention]

[0013] According to the present invention, even in the case of a broadcast email addressed to both external users and internal users, the email holding status of the external email and the internal email can be made consistent. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mail system according to this embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the relay device according to this embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram showing the operation of the mail system according to this embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram (continued) showing the operation of the mail system according to the present embodiment. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram (continued) showing the operation of the mail system according to the present embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0015] Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0016] [Present embodiment] First, a mail system 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

[0017] As shown in Figure 1, this mail system 1 is connected to a communication network NW such as the Internet, and processes mail exchanged by internal users belonging to a specific group such as a company or organization by sending and receiving messages for mail processing between the system and a mail server 40 on the communication network NW.

[0018] The mail system 1 is mainly composed of a relay device 10, a mail processing device 30, and a mail checking device 50.

[0019] [Repeater] The relay device 10 consists of a relay device such as a Unified Threat Management (UTM) device or a gateway device connected to the mail processing device 30 via a communication line L1, and is configured to relay and connect the information terminals 20 of internal users connected thereunder via a local communication network LAN to the communication network NW side.

[0020] The relay device 10 is configured to relay and transfer a request for sending and receiving a mail from the information terminal 20 to the mail processing device 30, and also to relay and transfer a mail delivered from the mail processing device 30 to the information terminal 20.

[0021] [Mail processing device] The mail processing device 30 consists of a server device connected to the communication network NW via a communication line L2, and is configured to process mail exchanged between users within the department by operating an information terminal 20 connected under the relay device 10.

[0022] In this embodiment, when a request to send a broadcast email containing internal users and external users other than internal users is received from the information terminal 20, the email processing device 30 is configured to immediately request the email server 40 to send the internal emails addressed to the internal users.

[0023] In addition, the mail processing device 30 is configured to temporarily suspend a request to send to the mail server 40 for an external mail addressed to an external user, notify the sender of the external mail to check the contents of the external mail, and then, in response to instructions from the sender user, request the mail server 40 to send the external mail or cancel the sending of the external mail.

[0024] Furthermore, the mail processing device 30 is configured to cancel the sending of the outside mail when a predetermined length of time has elapsed since the start of the hold, and to delete the outside mail on hold in response to the cancellation of the sending.

[0025] [Email confirmation device] The mail confirmation device 50 is generally composed of a general mail server or mail processing device connected to the communication network NW, and is configured to receive external mail requested for relay (send request) from the mail processing device 30, and to return a reception response indicating whether or not the specified external mail has been received in response to the reception request from the relay device 10.

[0026] The function of the mail check device 50 may be realized by the mail server 40 or the mail processing device 30, for example.

[0027] [Principle of the present invention] In the mail system 1 shown in FIG. 1, when a request to send a broadcast mail including internal users and external users other than internal users is made from an information terminal 20, the request to send is relayed to a mail processing device 30 via a relay device 10.

[0028] After this, the mail processing device 30 temporarily puts on hold the relay request (send request) for external mail to the mail server 40, and sends a relay request (send request) for only internal mail to the mail server 40. As a result, the mail server 40 sends a relay request (send request) for internal mail to the mail processing device 30, and the internal mail is stored in the mail processing device 30.

[0029] After that, when a reception request is made from the information terminal 20 of the internal user who is the destination, only the internal mail is returned from the mail processing device 30, and only the internal user receives the broadcast mail while the external mail is temporarily held.

[0030] Here, the relay device 10 is configured to relay and transfer broadcast mail requested to be sent from the information terminal 20 to the mail processing device 30. Therefore, the relay device 10 can reserve a request to send a broadcast mail to the mail processing device 30, save the broadcast mail, and copy the broadcast mail with its destination changed and request the mail processing device 30 to send it. In this case, it is also possible to copy an external mail with its destination changed to only external users and request it to be sent, or to copy an internal mail with its destination changed to only internal users and request it to be sent.

[0031] The present invention focuses on the characteristics of the mail hold processing that are unique to this mail system 1, and is configured so that when a request is made from an information terminal 20 to send a broadcast mail that includes both internal and external users as recipients, the relay device 10 starts to hold the transmission of the internal mail addressed to the internal users, copies the external mail that is addressed only to external users from the broadcast mail, and requests the mail processing device 30 to send it, and when a request is made from the mail processing device 30 to send the external mail, the hold on the internal mail transmission is released, and the internal mail that is addressed only to internal users is copied from the stored broadcast mail, and requests the mail processing device 30 to send it.

[0032] In addition, the connection configuration between the relay device 10 in this embodiment and the mail processing device 30, mail server 40, and mail checking device 50 is not limited to this, and may be changed as appropriate depending on the application that operates the relay device 10.

[0033] [Repeater] Next, the configuration of the relay device 10 according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

[0034] As shown in FIG. 2, the relay device 10 includes a communication I / F 11, a storage unit 12, and a control unit 13 as main processing units.

[0035] [Communication I / F] The communication I / F 11 is connected to the mail processing device 30 via the communication line L1 and is configured to relay and connect the information terminal 20 connected to the local communication network LAN to the communication network NW via the mail processing device 30.

[0036] In addition, the communication I / F 11 is configured to take in a mail sending request from the information terminal 20 and output it to the control unit 13, and relay the mail sending request output from the control unit 13 to the mail processing device 30, and is configured to take in a mail reception response from the mail processing device 30 and output it to the control unit 13, and relay the mail reception response output from the control unit 13 to the information terminal 20.

[0037] [Storage] The storage unit 12 is generally made up of a storage device such as a semiconductor memory or a hard disk, and is configured to store various data and programs 12P used in the mail reservation process in the control unit 13.

[0038] The program 12P is a program that realizes various processing units that execute mail holding processing in the control unit 13 by cooperating with the CPU of the control unit 13. The program 12P is read from an external device or a recording medium (neither of which is shown) and stored in the storage unit 12 in advance.

[0039] The main data stored in the storage unit 12 is mail data 12A.

[0040] [Email data] The mail data 12A is mail data indicating a broadcast mail, and is extracted by the relay processing unit 13A from the mail transmission request from the information terminal 20 captured by the communication I / F 11 and stored in the storage unit 12.

[0041] [Control Unit] The control unit 13 has a CPU and its peripheral circuits, and is configured to realize various processing units that execute mail holding processing in the control unit 13 by having the program 12P of the storage unit 12 and the CPU work together.

[0042] The main processing units realized by the control unit 13 are a relay processing unit 13A, a holding control unit 13B, and a mail copying unit 13C.

[0043] [Relay Processing Unit] The relay processing unit 13A is configured to relay and connect the information terminal 20 to the communication network NW side by controlling the communication I / F 11, relay and forward email sending and receiving requests from the information terminal 20 to the email processing device 30, and relay and forward emails delivered from the email processing device 30 to the information terminal 20.

[0044] [Reserved Control Unit] The hold control unit 13B is configured to check the email included in the transmission request imported by the communication I / F 11, and if the email is a broadcast email that includes both internal and external users as recipients, to start holding the transmission of the internal email addressed to the internal users and to instruct the email duplication unit 13C to send the external email.

[0045] In addition, the hold control unit 13B is configured to send a request to receive external email corresponding to the internal email to the email confirmation device 50 while the internal email is on hold, and if the reception response from the email confirmation device 50 indicates that the corresponding external email has not been received, continue to hold the transmission of the corresponding internal email.

[0046] In addition, the hold control unit 13B is configured to release the hold on transmission of the corresponding internal email when the reception response indicates that the corresponding external email has been received, and instruct the email duplication unit 13C to send the internal email.

[0047] The hold control unit 13B is also configured to instruct the mail copying unit 13C to cancel the transmission of the corresponding internal mail in accordance with the lapse of the hold period of the external mail in the mail processing device 30 during the transmission hold.

[0048] [Email Replication Department] In response to an instruction to send an external email from the holding control unit 13B, the email duplication unit 13C is configured to store email data 12A indicating the broadcast email in the memory unit 12, delete the email addresses of internal users from the destinations of the broadcast email, duplicate the external email with the email address of the email confirmation device 50 added, and output a request to send the external email to the communication I / F 11.

[0049] In addition, the email duplication unit 13C is configured to, in response to an instruction to send an internal email from the holding control unit 13B, duplicate an internal email by deleting the email address of the external user from the destination of the original broadcast email read from the email data 12A in the memory unit 12, output a request to send the internal email to the communication I / F 11, and delete the original broadcast email from the email data 12A.

[0050] Furthermore, the mail replicating unit 13C is configured to delete the original broadcast mail from the mail data 12A in response to an instruction to cancel transmission of the internal mail from the reservation control unit 13B.

[0051] [Operation of this embodiment] Next, the operation of the mail system 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence diagrams of Figures 3 to 5. Here, the case will be described as an example in which an internal user's information terminal A requests transmission of a broadcast mail addressed to an internal user's information terminal B and an external user's information terminal X (60) connected to the communication network NW.

[0052] As shown in FIG. 3, when a request to send an email is sent from an internal user's information terminal A (20) via the local network LAN (step 100), the relay device 10 receives the request via the communication I / F 11, and the holding control unit 13B of the control unit 13 checks the destination of the email included in the request (step 101).

[0053] Here, if the email is a broadcast email addressed to the information terminal B (20) of an internal user and the information terminal X (60) of an external user connected to the communication network NW, the hold control unit 13B starts to hold the transmission of the internal email addressed to the internal user (step 102) and instructs the email duplication unit 13C to send the external email.

[0054] In response to an instruction to send an external email from the holding control unit 13B, the email duplication unit 13C stores the broadcast email in the memory unit 12 as email data 12A (step 103), and also duplicates the external email addressed to the external user based on the broadcast email (step 104).

[0055] When duplicating an external email, the email duplication unit 13C deletes the email address indicating the internal user's address from the destination of the broadcast email, and duplicates the external email by adding a confirmation email address indicating the email confirmation device 50 to an item such as BCC.

[0056] Thereafter, the mail copying unit 13C outputs a transmission request for the copied external mail to the communication I / F 11, thereby transferring it to the mail processing device 30 via the communication line L1 (step 110).

[0057] When a transmission request is forwarded from the relay device 10, the mail processing device 30 checks the destination of the mail included in the transmission request, and if the address of an external user other than the internal users belonging to the group to be processed is included, the mail processing device 30 temporarily holds the relay request (transmission request) for the external mail addressed to the external user (step 111), and notifies the sender of the external mail, in this case information terminal A, to check the contents of the external mail (step 112). This content check may be notified by email, or may be notified on the screen of an application such as a mailer or browser running on information terminal A by the sender user.

[0058] After that, as shown in FIG. 4, when a transmission cancellation for the external mail is received from the sender user's information terminal A via the relay device 10 (step 120), the mail processing device 30 deletes the external mail that is temporarily stored (step 121).

[0059] In addition, after starting to hold the transmission of the internal email in step 102, the hold control unit 13B of the relay device 10 sends a reception request to the email confirmation device 50 from the communication line L2 via the communication network NW to confirm the reception of the external email corresponding to the internal email (step 130), and if the reception response from the email confirmation device 50 indicates that no email has been received (step 131), the hold control unit 13B continues to hold the transmission of the internal email.

[0060] Furthermore, if the hold period for external mail in the mail processing device 30 has elapsed while transmission of an internal mail is on hold (step 132), the hold control unit 13B instructs the mail duplication unit 13C to cancel transmission of the corresponding internal mail.

[0061] In response to the instruction to cancel sending of the internal email from the hold control unit 13B, the email duplication unit 13C deletes the original broadcast email from the email data 12A in the storage unit 12 (step 133), and ends the series of email hold processes for the internal email.

[0062] On the other hand, as shown in Figure 5, when an OK to send an external mail is received from the sender user's information terminal A via the relay device 10 (step 140), the mail processing device 30 releases the temporary hold on the external mail that is temporarily stored (step 141) and transfers a relay request (send request) for the external mail to the mail server 40 via the communication line L2 and the communication network NW (step 142).

[0063] As a result, when the information terminal X uses the mail server 40, external mail addressed to the information terminal X is stored in the mail server 40. Also, a relay request (send request) regarding external mail addressed to the mail checking device 50 is transferred from the mail server 40 to the mail checking device 50 via the communication network NW (step 143).

[0064] Therefore, when the hold control unit 13B of the relay device 10 subsequently sends a reception request to confirm the reception of the external mail from the communication line L2 through the communication network NW to the mail check device 50 (step 150), the reception response from the mail check device 50 indicates that the mail has been received (step 151). As a result, the hold control unit 13B determines that the hold of the external mail has been released.

[0065] The hold control unit 13B determines that the hold of the external email has been released based on the reception response indicating that the email has been received from the email confirmation device 50, releases the hold on the transmission of the corresponding internal email that has been released (step 152), and instructs the email duplication unit 13C to send the internal email.

[0066] In response to an instruction to send an internal email from the holding control unit 13B, the email duplication unit 13C reads the original broadcast email from the email data 12A in the memory unit 12 (step 153) and duplicates the internal email by deleting the email addresses of external users from the destinations of the original broadcast email (step 154).

[0067] When duplicating an internal email, the email duplicating unit 13C duplicates the internal email by deleting email addresses indicating the destinations of external users from the destinations of the broadcast email.

[0068] Next, the email duplication unit 13C outputs a request to send the internal email to the communication I / F 11 (step 155), and deletes the original broadcast email from the email data 12A (step 156), thereby completing the series of email suspension processes for the internal email.

[0069] When the mail processing device 30 receives a request to send an internal mail from the relay device 10, it transfers the relay request (send request) for the internal mail to the mail server 40 via the communication line L2 and the communication network NW (step 157).

[0070] After that, when the mail processing device 30 receives a relay request (send request) for an internal mail addressed to information terminal B from the mail server 40 via the communication network NW and communication line L2 (step 158), it stores the internal mail.

[0071] As a result, when the reception request from information terminal B is transferred from relay device 10 (step 160), mail processing device 30 delivers the stored internal mail addressed to information terminal B by means of a reception response (step 161).

[0072] The receipt response of the email sent from the email processing device 30 is forwarded to the information terminal B via the local communication network LAN by the relay processing unit 13A of the control unit 13 in the relay device 10, and the internal email is then confirmed by the internal user of the information terminal B.

[0073] [Advantages of this embodiment] In this way, in this embodiment, when a request is made from the information terminal 20 to send a broadcast email whose destination addresses are both internal and external users, the relay device 10 starts to hold the transmission of the internal email addressed to the internal users, copies the external email addressed only to external users from the broadcast email, and requests the email processing device 30 to send it, and when a request is made from the email processing device 30 to send the external email to the email server 40, the relay device 10 releases the hold on the internal email transmission, copies the internal email addressed only to internal users from the stored broadcast email, and requests the email processing device 30 to send it.

[0074] As a result, when a request to send an external mail is made from the mail processing device 30 to the mail server 40, the hold on sending of the internal mail at the relay device 10 is released and a request to send the internal mail is also made. Therefore, even if only the external mail among the broadcast mails is temporarily held at the mail processing device 30, the delivery status of the external mail and the internal mail can be made to match.

[0075] [Extended embodiment] Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Various modifications that can be understood by those skilled in the art can be made to the configuration and details of the present invention within the scope of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0076] 1...mail system, 10...relay device, 11...communication I / F, 12...memory unit, 12A...mail data, 12P...program, 13...control unit, 13A...relay processing unit, 13B...holding control unit, 13C...mail replication unit, 20...information terminal, 30...mail processing device, 40...mail server, 50...mail confirmation device, 60...information terminal, LAN...local communication network, L1, L2...communication line, NW...communication network.

Claims

1. a mail processing device configured to process mails exchanged by users in a department belonging to a predetermined group and to issue a mail transmission request to a mail server; a relay device configured to relay and transfer to the mail processing device a request for sending and receiving an email from an information terminal of the internal user connected thereto, and to relay and transfer an email delivered from the mail processing device to the information terminal; Equipped with The mail processing device includes: When a broadcast email including the internal users and external users other than the internal users is requested to be sent from the information terminal, a transmission request to the mail server for an external email addressed to the external user is suspended, and the suspension of the transmission request to the mail server is released in response to an instruction from a sender user of the broadcast email; The relay device When a transmission request for the broadcast mail is made from the information terminal, the broadcast mail is stored, and a transmission request to the mail processing device is reserved for internal mail addressed to the internal user, and an external mail addressed only to the external user is copied from the broadcast mail and a transmission request is made to the mail processing device; When it is determined that the hold of the external email has been released, the internal email addressed to only the internal users is copied from the stored broadcast email and a transmission request is made to the email processing device. A mail system characterized by:

2. The relay device When a transmission request for the broadcast mail is made from the information terminal, a transmission request for the external mail to which a predetermined external user address has been added is transmitted to the mail processing device; The system is configured to determine that the hold of the external email has been released based on the fact that the external email has been sent to the destination of the predetermined external user.

2. The mail system according to claim 1.

3. The relay device The system is configured to release the hold of the internal email when a predetermined time has elapsed after the start of the hold of the request to send the internal email to the email processing device.

2. The mail system according to claim 1.

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