Abstract:
An electronic mail management system and method is disclosed comprising a control table for storing information related to sent and received messages of an email client, wherein the stored information relates to header fields of the received and sent messages and, in particular, to fields as defined in Internet Engineering Task Force standard RFC 2822. The system monitors the control table to identify received messages which relate to sent messages and also to identify sent messages which have not been responded to by the recipients of the sent message. The email client displays received messages stored in the control table hierarchically according to the related sent message and also displays the status of the messages in the control table.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to a method of and systems for managing electronic mail (email) messages and particularly, but not exclusively, for tracking related email messages. One email message may be related to another, for example, because it is a reply to the other.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0002]     Email has become a critical communications service. For many individuals, the volume of received email messages is becoming extremely difficult to manage on a day-to-day basis. The increasing volume of messages can make it difficult to follow the thread of an email conversation or discussion. For example, if a message is sent asking a question to a number of recipients, it may be difficult to ensure that all the recipients have answered the question simply by looking at the messages received.  
         [0003]     Typically, client email systems can organise email by a number of factors such as date received, sender or subject heading. Many email systems also enable a series of rules to perform functions on each message depending on the information in the message header or body. For instance, a message may be placed in a certain email folder if received from a particular sender.  
         [0004]     Rules are globally applied to all received emails and any message which conforms to a particular rule has a function applied to it. Therefore, rules cannot relate to a particular sent message and therefore do not help to relate received messages to sent messages.  
         [0005]     U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,141 discloses a system for administering email having an email client which stores information relating to a message in a table according to whether an answer is required to the message. The email client is required for both sender and recipient to enable the system to function.  
         [0006]     Email message fields are defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force email standard RFC 2822. This standard sets out the format for messages to ensure parity across networks and to enable any email client to correctly interpret messages. Similarly, RFC 2821 sets out the standard for the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), which governs the sending and propagation of email in a network.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention provides a method of and systems for managing email that make it less difficult to track related email messages and therefore follow the thread of an email conversation.  
         [0008]     According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of managing email messages comprising the steps of: 
        sending at least one sent message having a plurality of sent fields;     storing information from at least one of the plurality of sent fields of the at least one sent message;     receiving at least one received message having a plurality of received fields; and     comparing information from at least one of the plurality of received fields with the stored information to identify if the at least one sent message relates to the at least one received message.        
 
         [0013]     According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an email content management system comprising: 
        means for storing information relating to at least one sent message having a plurality of sent fields; and     means for comparing at least one received message having a plurality of received fields to the stored information to identify if the at least one received message relates to the at least one sent message.        
 
         [0016]     According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided an email client system having an email content management system according to the second aspect of the invention.  
         [0017]     According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program product directly loadable into an internal memory of a digital computer comprising software code portions for performing the steps of the first aspect of the invention when said product is run on a computer.  
         [0018]     According to a fifth aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer system comprising an execution environment for running an application and an email client system having an email content management system according to the second aspect of the invention. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]     Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which;  
         [0020]      FIG. 1  shows a schematic of a prior art email system;  
         [0021]      FIG. 2  shows a schematic of an email system comprising an email management system of the present invention;  
         [0022]      FIG. 3  shows an embodiment of a control table of the present invention;  
         [0023]      FIG. 4  shows a schematic of an embodiment of an email client of the present invention; and  
         [0024]      FIG. 5  shows a representation of email messages organised according to the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0025]     Throughout the figures like references numerals refer to like items.  
         [0026]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a prior art email system  10  comprises an email client  12 , an address store  14 , at least one Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) server  16  and a MTA delivery server  18 . The email client  12  is operated by an originating user  20  and the MTA delivery server  18  delivers messages to a recipient  22 , usually by way of an additional email client (not shown).  
         [0027]     The email client  12  comprises a Graphical User Interface (GUI)  24  which allows the originating user  20  to operate the email client  12 . The GUI  24  enables a number of processes to be accessed including a create message process  26  and a read (consult) message process  28 .  
         [0028]     The email standard RFC2822 defines the formatting of a message as well as the information that should be appended during the propagation of messages through a network. In particular, RFC2822 defines a message identifier header field, a trace header field and a reference header field.  
         [0029]     The message identifier field, sometimes written msg-id or message-id, must be present in an email message and provides a unique identifier for a particular message.  
         [0030]     Mail transfer agents append the trace header field to a message as it propagates through a network. Typically, the trace field contains information relating to the receipt of the message from another computer (usually a MTA), such as, name or Internet Protocol (IP) address of sending and receiving computer, and date and time of receipt.  
         [0031]     The reference header field contains information about messages from which the present message depends. These are usually termed “parent” messages. Any message that is forwarded or replied to has its msg-id appended to the references header field. Specifically, the reference header field contains the information contained in the reference header field of the parent message and the msg-id of the parent message.  
         [0032]     When the create message process  26  is instructed by the originating user  20  to send a message, the message is formatted according to Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) standards and then delivered to a SMTP stack  30 . If the MTA server  16  is available, the message or messages are submitted by the SMTP stack  30  to the MTA server  16 . If the MTA server  16  is unavailable, the SMTP stack  30  queues the message or messages until the MTA server  16  can be contacted. Once the MTA server  16  has received the message, the message will be forwarded as appropriate through a network  32 , which is usually the Internet, until it reaches the MTA delivery server  18 . The recipient  22  may then download the message from the MTA delivery server  18  and access its contents.  
         [0033]     The read message process  28  displays messages to the originating user  20  from a mailbox  34 . The mailbox  34  downloads any message from the network  32  for the originating user  20 . In this context, a received message is one that is downloaded from the network  32  for the user  20 .  
         [0034]     It should be appreciated that a “sent message” may include a message in the process of being sent and a “received message” may include a message in the process of being received.  
         [0035]     Referring to  FIG. 2 , in accordance with the present invention, the email client  12  comprises a content management system  36 . The create message process  26  delivers sent messages to the content management system  36 . The content management system  36  updates a control table  40  ( FIG. 3 ) with information from the sent message. In this example, the control table  40  has the following control fields: 
    (a) message identifier (msg-id)—populated by the unique identifier code as provided for by the standards set out in RFC2822;     (b) list of recipients;     (c) status—indicates whether the message, as identified by the msg-id field, has been replied to;     (d) content modified—indicates if the original message content has been modified; and     (e) check date—sets a deadline response date for which a reply is due.    
 
         [0041]     It should be appreciated that other control fields may be used depending on the information that is required by the system.  
         [0042]     The control table  40  is updated with the msg-id of the sent message in the msg-id field, the list of recipients in the list of recipients field and a due date in the check date field.  
         [0043]     Once the control table  40  has been updated, the content management system  36  submits the message to the SMTP stack  30 . The SMTP stack  30  then delivers the message to the MTA server  16  as described previously.  
         [0044]     The read message process  28  now receives messages from the content management system  36 , which in turn receives messages from the mailbox  34 . When the content management system  36  receives a received message from the mailbox  34 , the header fields of the received message are checked. If the received message is related to a sent message in the control table  40 , information is extracted from the received message and recorded in the control table  40 .  
         [0045]     The content management system  36  compares received messages with the information stored in the control table  40 . In particular, the recipients fields, the trace header fields and references header field are examined for recipient addresses and msg-ids of messages already in the control table  40 . Where matches are found, the control table  40  is updated with information about the received message and, if necessary, the matching message is updated to show that a reply has been found.  
         [0046]     In this context, the recipients fields include any fields containing addresses for which a sent message should be delivered. For example, the list of recipients fields could include a “TO” field, a “CC” field and a “BCC” field.  
         [0047]     The content management system  36  also monitors information in the control table  40  periodically. In this example, a check date field is included in the control table  40 . The content management system  36  compares the current date and time with the check date and time, as well as checking the status, for each message in the control table  40 . If a check date is overdue and the status field indicates a reply is still required from at least some recipients, a reminder message is automatically sent to the recipients who have not yet replied.  
         [0048]     Referring to  FIG. 4 , an embodiment of the email client  12  of the present invention is shown in more detail. The content management system  36  includes the control table  40  and a trace field update  42 . The trace field update  42  inserts and updates information from received and sent messages to the control table  40 .  
         [0049]     Referring to  FIG. 5 , an example of a hierarchical organisation of messages according to the present invention is shown. A received message which is identified as being related to a sent message is shown as a child. It is also possible to identify if the message has been forwarded prior to receiving a reply by analysing the references field. As mentioned previously, the references field contains all the msg-ids of parent messages, making it possible to organise messages according to hierarchy. Furthermore, by combining information from the control table  40  relating to the status of each message with the organised messages a readily identifiable and accurate picture of the message history is created.  
         [0050]     A user of the present invention does not require that recipients of messages also are users of the present invention. Email message header fields which are defined by the RFC 2822 standard are used exclusively to track and monitor message responses. Therefore any email client will provide information to enable the present invention natively.  
         [0051]     Improvements and modifications may be incorporated without departing from the scope of the present invention.