JP2001184277A - Device and method for reading data - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data reading device for conveniently reading electronic mails and data corresponding to positional information included in the electronic mails. SOLUTION: The data reading device is provided with a mail receiving device 3 for receiving mail, a WWW access device 4 for receiving Web data, a mail storing part 6, a Web data storing part 7, a communication controlling part 5 for controlling the whole receiving processing by reading a URL character string from the mail received by the mail receiving device 3, receiving the Web data, relating them with each other, and preserving them in a mail storing part 6 and a Web data storing part 7, an input part 9 to be used for allowing a user to input various commands, a display part 10 for displaying the mail or the Web data of the like, and a control part 8 for controlling the whole reading processing by taking out the mail and the Web data from the mail storing part 6 and the Web data storing part 7 according to the operation of the inputting part 9 and displaying them in the display part 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a data browsing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a data browsing apparatus and method capable of simultaneously displaying electronic mail and Web data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, electronic mail receiving apparatuses and WWW
(World Wide Web) An information providing service using an electronic mail has been actively performed for a data browsing device provided with an access device. There are two types of e-mail: text type and HTML (HyperText Markup Language) type.
Forms exist. A text-type e-mail is composed of only character information and can be browsed by all data browsing devices. On the other hand, HTML-type e-mail can handle information such as images that cannot be expressed only with character information,
It can be handled only by special data browsing devices.
For this reason, at present, text-type e-mail is dominantly used.

As a method for handling information that cannot be handled only by character information in a text-type electronic mail, it is possible to access a WWW server on which an image for complementing the contents of the electronic mail or a more detailed description is written. (Uniform Resource Locator) character string is often written together with character information. The URL character string is a character string having a special meaning indicating the location of Web data. The user can perform a simple operation, such as clicking a URL character string with a mouse, on the e-mail receiving apparatus, and the WW
The W access device can be automatically linked and driven, and the user can access information on the WWW server specified by the URL character string and browse Web data. The convenience of the data browsing device has been further increased by such an interlocking operation between the electronic mail receiving device and the WWW access device.

[0004]

However, the mechanism of the link operation between the electronic mail receiving device and the WWW access device in the conventional data browsing device provides convenience, while the electronic mail receiving device and the WWW access device are not connected. Have a problem that they do not consider data linkage. For example, even if the user saves the e-mail, the Web data indicated by the URL character string is not saved because the data is not linked. For this reason, the user has to manually save the web data, and there is a problem that convenience is reduced.

[0005] Further, if the user saves the e-mail and tries to browse it again later, the e-mail can be viewed, but if the Web data specified by the URL character string described in the e-mail is not stored, the Web W to get the data
It needs to access a WW server. However, WWW
If the corresponding Web data has been deleted from the server, the user cannot browse the Web data.

Further, even if the Web data exists in the WWW server at that time, access to the network for acquiring the Web data occurs every time the user operates, and a structural problem that the network use efficiency is deteriorated. I have

In addition, even if Web data is stored,
Since there is no data link between the e-mail and the Web data stored in the data browsing device, there is a problem that the user must manage the relationship between the e-mail and the Web data. That is, the original email was saved
Data linkage is not performed because it does not point to Web data and points to Web data on the network.

[0008] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-161539 discloses We
A method of linking between b data is disclosed. That is, a method is shown in which a Web page recorded from a network can be collectively stored in a storage device together with an image file and the like, and can be selected.

In this method, however, the document recorded by the WWW access device, all the image files included in the document, and the URL information of the document are stored collectively, but the data linkage with the e-mail receiving device is required. It has a similar problem in that it is not considered.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to be able to conveniently browse an e-mail and data corresponding to position information contained in the e-mail. The present invention provides an apparatus and method for browsing data.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a data browsing apparatus and method capable of browsing data corresponding to location information included in an electronic mail without causing access to a network.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a data browsing apparatus and a data browsing method capable of displaying data without a user managing a link between an electronic mail and data corresponding to position information included in the electronic mail. It is to be.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data browsing apparatus connected to a network, an e-mail receiving apparatus for receiving an e-mail by accessing an e-mail server via the network, A data access device that obtains data by accessing a data server that provides data via a network, an e-mail storage unit that stores e-mail, a data storage unit that stores data, and displays e-mail and data E-mail storage control means connected to the e-mail reception device and the e-mail storage unit for controlling the storage of the e-mail received by the e-mail reception device in the e-mail storage unit; From the e-mail received by the e-mail receiving device A position information acquisition unit that acquires position information that specifies data existing on the network, and is connected to the position information acquisition unit, the data access device, and the data storage unit, and operates the data access device to handle the position information. Data storage control means for performing control of acquiring data from the data server and storing the data in the data storage unit, and connected to the e-mail storage unit and the data storage unit,
And display control means for controlling display of the e-mail stored in the e-mail storage unit and the data stored in the data storage unit on the display unit.

The data is received in cooperation with the reception of the electronic mail, and is stored in the electronic mail storage unit and the data storage unit. Therefore, the user can always immediately browse the Web data indicated by the position information included in the stored e-mail. Therefore, the convenience of the data browsing device can be improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect, the data storage control means associates data corresponding to the position information with an electronic mail including the position information. The data is stored in the data storage unit.

The received data is stored in the data storage unit in association with the position information included in the electronic mail. Therefore, data can be browsed without causing access to the network. In addition, communication costs are not required.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the second aspect of the present invention, the apparatus further includes an input unit for selecting and inputting position information from the e-mail displayed on the display unit.
The display control unit reads data corresponding to the selected and input position information from the data storage unit, and displays the data on the display unit in association with the electronic mail.

By selecting the position information when browsing the electronic mail, data corresponding to the position information can be displayed. For this reason, the user can save the trouble of managing the link between the stored e-mail and the data.

In the data browsing method according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, an e-mail and data can be acquired and stored in a storage unit by accessing an e-mail server and a data server connected to a network, respectively. Used in various data browsing devices. The data browsing method includes a step of acquiring an e-mail, a step of acquiring position information specifying data existing on the network from the acquired e-mail, and a step of placing data corresponding to the acquired position information on the network. The method includes the steps of acquiring from an existing data server, storing the acquired e-mail and data in the storage unit, and displaying the e-mail and data.

The data is received in cooperation with the reception of the electronic mail, and is stored in the storage unit. For this reason, the user is not allowed to enter the location information contained in the saved e-mail.
bData can always be viewed immediately. Therefore, data can be browsed with high convenience.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the fourth aspect of the invention, the step of storing the e-mail and the data includes the step of storing the data corresponding to the position information into an electronic mail containing the position information. And storing it in the storage unit in association with the mail.

The received data is stored in the storage unit in association with the position information included in the electronic mail. Therefore, data can be browsed without causing access to the network. In addition, communication costs are not required.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the fifth aspect, the method further includes a step of selecting and inputting position information from the displayed e-mail, and displaying the e-mail and data. The reading step includes reading data corresponding to the selected and input position information from the storage unit, and displaying the data in association with the electronic mail.

By selecting position information when browsing an electronic mail, data corresponding to the position information can be displayed. For this reason, the user can save the trouble of managing the link between the stored e-mail and the data.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, a data browsing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention communicates with an e-mail server 1 connected to a network and receives e-mails one by one. A WWW access device 4 for communicating with the device 3 and the WWW server 2 connected to the network and receiving Web data one by one; an e-mail storage unit 6;
Web data storage unit 7, e-mail receiving device 3, WWW
It is connected to the access device 4, the e-mail storage unit 6, and the Web data storage unit 7, and reads a URL character string from the e-mail received by the e-mail reception device 3, and performs WWW.
After receiving the Web data via the access device 4, they are associated with each other, and the electronic mail storage unit 6 and the Web
And a communication control unit 5 that controls the entire reception process stored in the data storage unit 7.

The data browsing device further includes an input unit 9 used by the user to input various commands, a display unit 10 for displaying e-mail and Web data, a communication control unit 5, an e-mail storage unit 6, It is connected to the web data storage unit 7, the input unit 9 and the display unit 10, and takes out e-mail and web data from the e-mail storage unit 6 and the web data storage unit 7 according to the operation of the input unit 9, respectively. And a control unit 8 for controlling the entire browsing process, such as displaying them on the screen.

An example of an electronic mail will be described with reference to FIG. Generally, an e-mail is composed of only character information. However, the e-mail may include URL character strings 21 and 22. When this character is selected from the input unit 9, Web data corresponding to this URL character string is displayed on the display unit 10.

An example of the screen of the display unit 10 will be described with reference to FIG. E-mail data stored in the e-mail storage unit 6 is displayed on the left half of the screen, and on the right side of the screen
Web data (image data as an example) stored in the Web data storage unit 7 is displayed.

An e-mail list 32 is displayed on the left side of the screen, and one line corresponds to one e-mail. In the figure, the title of the e-mail and the reception date and time are displayed. When the user selects one of the e-mails from the e-mail list 32, the selected e-mail data is displayed on the e-mail display unit 33.

For example, if the user selects an e-mail 31 from the e-mail list 32 using the input unit 9, e-mail data of the selected e-mail 31 is displayed on the e-mail display unit 33. .

When the user selects the URL character string 22 from the e-mail data displayed on the e-mail display section 33, the corresponding Web data is displayed on the Web data display section 34 on the right side of the screen.

With reference to FIG. 4, an example of the storage format of the e-mail data stored in the e-mail storage unit 6 will be described. In the electronic mail storage unit 6, electronic mails are distinguished by an electronic mail index. Separately, the number of all e-mails in the data browsing device is stored in area 41. For example, e-mail data stored in the area represented by the first e-mail index is uniquely represented by a function called mail (1). The value of this function holds an attribute related to e-mail. Character information of mail (1), which is one of the attributes, is stored in area 42. The number m1 of all URLs included in this e-mail, which is also one of the attributes, is the area 4
3 is stored. Further, all URL character string information in the e-mail, which is one of the attributes, is stored in the area 44.
Is stored.

Areas 42 to 44 are information on the electronic mail represented by the function mail (1). If the total number of received e-mails is n, the areas 42 to 44
There are n-1 areas of the same type in the area 45.

Referring to FIG. 5, an example of a storage format of Web data stored in Web data storage unit 7 will be described. In the Web data storage unit 7, the Web
Data is specified. The two indexes are an email index N and a URL character string index M
When the two index values are determined, Web data is uniquely determined. For example, if the M-th URL character string from the top of the e-mail indicated by the N-th e-mail index is represented by a function called url (N, M), the corresponding Web data is Web (N, M) )
Is represented by the function

When an e-mail is received via the e-mail receiving device 3 and stored in the e-mail storage unit 6, the communication control unit 5 reads a URL character string corresponding to Web data. Web data corresponding to the read URL character string is W
It is received via the WW access device 4 and stored in the Web data storage 7. For example, Web data Web (1, 1)
Is stored in the area 52. Similarly, Web data Web (1,
2) to Web (1, ml) are stored in the area 53. Here, m1 represents the number of URL character strings contained in the first electronic mail, and ml is stored in the area 51.

When the total number of electronic mails is n, n-1 areas of the same kind as the areas 51 to 53 exist in the area 54.

One set of Web data corresponds to one piece of electronic mail data. That is, one set of Web data stored in the areas 51 to 53 corresponds to one e-mail data stored in the areas 42 to 44. For this reason,
When e-mail data corresponding to one set of Web data is deleted, the corresponding Web data is also deleted. Also,
Without e-mail data, Web data cannot exist independently.

Referring to FIG. 6, the processing performed by the data browsing apparatus will be described. The processing is roughly divided into a reception processing and a browsing processing. The control unit 8 waits for a user input from the input unit 9 (step 61). If the user has requested reception of the e-mail (received in step 62), the communication control unit 5 receives the e-mail from the e-mail server 1 via the e-mail receiving device 3 (step 63), It is analyzed whether a URL character string is included in the electronic mail text (step 64). If a URL character string is included, Web data indicated by the URL character string is received via the WWW access device 4 (step 6).
5), a series of reception processing ends. Then step 6
Return to 1 and wait for user input.

When the user requests reading of the electronic mail (viewing in step 62), the control unit 8 displays the text of the electronic mail stored in the electronic mail storage unit 6 (step 66). The control unit 8 includes a URL in the text.
If the character string exists, the Web corresponding to the URL character string
The data is read from the Web data storage unit 7 and displayed (Step 67). Since the e-mail data and the Web data are stored in association with each other, the e-mail data can be promptly linked with the e-mail browsing without performing the inefficient processing of downloading the received Web data again. Web data browsing is realized.

Referring to FIG. 7, the e-mail receiving process (step 63 in FIG. 6) and the URL character analyzing process (step 64 in FIG. 6) will be described in detail. Assuming that the number of e-mails currently stored in the e-mail storage unit 6 is n, a value of n + 1 is substituted for a variable N (step 7).
1). The variable N is an index value indicating an electronic mail storage position in the electronic mail storage unit 6.

The e-mail receiving device 3 receives the e-mail (step 72), and the communication control unit 5 stores the received e-mail in the area represented by the index value N of the e-mail storage unit 6 by sending the e-mail data mail ( N) (step 73). The communication control unit 5 initializes the index by setting the index value L indicating the read line of the electronic mail and the index value M of the URL character string in the electronic mail to 1 (step 74). The reading of the character string on the L-th line from the beginning is started (step 75). If the character string has been read (YES in step 76), it is checked whether or not the character string includes a URL character string (step 76).

If the character string cannot be read (NO in step 76), the processing has been completed for all the lines of the e-mail, so that the total number n of the e-mails stored in the area 41 of the e-mail storage unit 6 is The total number of e-mails is updated by substituting the index value N (step 8).
3), end the process.

The determination as to whether or not the URL character string is included in step 77 is made based on whether or not the character string "http: //" is included in the character string. UR in character string
If the L character string is included (YES in step 77),
The communication control unit 5 acquires the URL character string and stores it in the e-mail storage unit 6 (Step 78).

The index values M and N are transmitted to the communication control unit 5 for receiving Web data (step 80). Based on the index values M and N, Web data is received in step 90 of FIG. 8 described below. When the Web data is received, the URL character string is associated with the Web data. Thereafter, the index value M is incremented by one (step 8).
1). Note that even when a URL character string is included,
Even if it is not included (NO in step 77), the index value L is incremented by one to read the character string in the next line (step 82). Thereafter, the flow returns to step 75 to read the character string of the next line.

Referring to FIG. 8, in conjunction with the reception of the e-mail shown in FIG.
Will be described. Step 80 in FIG.
When the communication control unit 5 receives the index values M and N, the communication control unit 5 reads the URL character string of the Web data to be received from the electronic mail storage unit 6 based on the function url (N, M) (step 90). . The WWW access device 4
The URL indicated by url (N, M) is accessed, and Web data is received from the WWW server 2 (step 91). The received Web data is stored in the Web data storage unit 7 (Step 92). The stored Web data is
It is specified by a function (N, M).

Referring to FIG. 9, the details of the process (steps 66 and 67 in FIG. 6) of linking and displaying the electronic mail data and the Web data stored in electronic mail storage unit 6 and Web data storage unit 7, respectively, will be described in detail. Will be described.

When the user operates the input unit 9,
When an e-mail to be viewed is selected, the index value N of the e-mail is given to the control unit 8 (step 1).
01). For example, when e-mail 31 is selected from e-mail list 32 in FIG. 3, N = 1 is set. Assuming that the e-mail selected immediately before is N ', when the same e-mail is continuously viewed, N = N'. In addition, the index value M of the URL selected by the user operating the input unit 9 is given to the control unit 8, and the URL selected immediately before is set to M '.

The control unit 8 determines whether the user has requested a new electronic mail viewing (step 10).
2). When a request is made to view a new e-mail (NO in step 102), the e-mail represented by the index value N is read from the e-mail storage unit 6 and displayed on the display unit 1.
0 is displayed (step 104), and the values of the index values M and M 'are set to 0 (step 105). 0 is
It does not indicate a URL character string. Then, the Web data specified by the function Web (N, M) is displayed on the display unit 10 (Step 106). Here, since the index value M is set to 0, there is no corresponding Web data. Therefore, nothing is displayed on the display unit 10.

If the selected URL character string is the same as the one selected immediately before, the electronic mail being viewed is the same and the selected URL character string does not change (YES in step 102). , YE at step 103
S), there is no need to update the display. Therefore, the process ends.

If the selected URL character string is different from the one selected immediately before (YES in step 102, NO in step 103), the index value M is substituted for the index value M '(step 107), and the function Web
The Web data represented by (N, M) is stored in the Web data storage unit 7.
Is read out and displayed on the display unit 10 (step 10
6). With the above processing, every time the URL character string of the currently viewed e-mail is selected, the associated Web
The data is displayed immediately.

As described above, according to the data browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, the Web data is automatically received in conjunction with the reception of the e-mail, and is stored in the Web data storage unit 7. . Therefore, the user can always immediately browse the Web data indicated by the URL character string described in the stored e-mail, and the convenience of the data browsing device can be improved.

The automatically received Web data is stored in the Web data storage unit 7 in association with the URL character string of the electronic mail. Therefore, it is possible to browse Web data without generating access to the network. As a result, network utilization efficiency can be improved. In addition, communication costs are not required.

Further, by selecting a URL character string when browsing an e-mail, corresponding Web data can be displayed. For this reason, the user can save the trouble of managing the link between the stored e-mail and the Web data.

The embodiments disclosed this time are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a hardware block diagram showing a configuration of a data browsing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an electronic mail according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of the display unit 10 of the data browsing device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a storage format of electronic mail data stored in an electronic mail storage unit 6 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a storage format of Web data stored in Web data storage unit 7 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of an algorithm of the entire process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic mail to U
5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing algorithm for reading an RL character string and storing received e-mail data in an e-mail storage unit 6.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a processing algorithm for storing received Web data in the Web data storage unit 7 in conjunction with reception of an e-mail according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows a processing algorithm for linking and displaying electronic mail data and Web data stored in the electronic mail storage unit 6 and the Web data storage unit 7, respectively, according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 E-mail server, 2 WWW server, 3 E-mail receiving device, 4 WWW access device, 5 communication control unit, 6 E-mail storage unit, 7 Web data storage unit, 8
Control unit, 9 input unit, 10 display unit.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail receiving device connected to a network and receiving an e-mail by accessing the e-mail server via the network, and accessing a data server connected to the network and providing data via the network A data access device that obtains data by doing so; an e-mail storage unit that stores e-mail; a data storage unit that stores data; a display unit that displays e-mail and data; An e-mail storage control unit connected to an e-mail storage unit and configured to perform control for storing an e-mail received by the e-mail reception device in the e-mail storage unit; and the e-mail connected to the e-mail reception device. From the e-mail received by the receiving device, A position information acquisition unit that acquires position information that specifies existing data; connected to the position information acquisition unit, the data access device and the data storage unit, and operating the data access device to obtain the position information. Data storage control means for performing control to acquire corresponding data from the data server and store the data in the data storage unit; and connected to the electronic mail storage unit and the data storage unit, and stored in the electronic mail storage unit. A display control unit for controlling display of an electronic mail and data stored in the data storage unit on the display unit. 2. The data browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data storage control unit stores data corresponding to the position information in the data storage unit in association with an electronic mail including the position information. 3. An input unit for selectively inputting position information from the e-mail displayed on the display unit, wherein the display control unit stores data corresponding to the selectively input position information in the data storage unit. The data browsing device according to claim 2, wherein the data is read from the electronic mail and displayed on the display unit in association with the electronic mail. 4. A data browsing method used in a data browsing apparatus capable of acquiring an e-mail and data by accessing an e-mail server and a data server connected to a network, respectively, and storing the e-mail and data in a storage unit. Obtaining an e-mail; obtaining position information specifying data existing on the network from the obtained e-mail; and storing data corresponding to the obtained position information on the network. A data browsing method, comprising: acquiring from a data server; storing the acquired e-mail and data in the storage unit; and displaying the e-mail and data. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein storing the electronic mail and the data includes storing the data corresponding to the position information in the storage unit in association with the electronic mail including the position information. Data browsing method described in. 6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting and inputting position information from the displayed e-mails, and the step of displaying the e-mail and the data comprises: The data browsing method according to claim 5, further comprising a step of reading from the storage unit and displaying the data in association with the electronic mail.