JPS6390941A - Message communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To draw out a data stored in a mail box, from other terminal than a designated receiving terminal, by responding to the change request of an output terminal from a designated terminal or other terminal so that a message whose output terminal is designated is outputted from other different terminal than the terminal. CONSTITUTION:When a teletex 2-d outputs a request to draw out only a telegraphic message 7-a to a teletex 2-f, to an MHS host 3, the MHS host 3 draws out the telegraphic message 7-a addressed to the teletex 2-d, to the teletex 2-f from a mail box 4. The address of the telegraphic message in this case remains unchanged, and only the output teletex is changed. Also, even when a telegraphic message outputted to a facsimile 2-e is that of a facsimile 7-b, the teletex 2-d outputs a request to draw out its telegraphic message 7-b to the facsimile 2-e, with respect to the MHS host 3. In this way, the MHS host 3 draws out its telegraphic message 7-b to the facsimile 2-e from the mail box 4. In this regard, the drawing-out request may be also outputted from the teletex 2-f.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field) The present invention relates to a message communication system comprising a plurality of telematic terminals such as facsimile and teletex terminals.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in message communication, a central exchange is provided with a storage device, a predetermined area within the storage device is allocated as a mailbox, and messages are written in the mailbox based on specifications from a sending terminal. The content is retrieved from the designated receiving terminal.

However, if the recipient is not at the designated receiving terminal location or if the designated receiving terminal has a problem, the message cannot be retrieved and the message cannot be received immediately. Ta.

〔the purpose〕

In view of the problems of the prior art as described above, the present invention aims to provide a message communication system that makes it possible to extract data in a mailbox from a terminal other than a designated receiving terminal.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 1 to 15. FIG. 1 is an example of an e-mail system according to the present invention. 1 is the center machine of the message handling system (hereinafter referred to as M
HS), and is connected to a terminal device 2 connected via a local area network (LAN) or the like via a dedicated line SK or a high-speed digital line DK.

Actual operation diagrams are shown in FIGS. 2 to 8, and the operation will be explained below. 2-a, 2-c, 2-d, 2-f
is a Teletex terminal device (hereinafter referred to as Teletex), 2-b
.

2-e is a facsimile terminal device (hereinafter referred to as facsimile), and each of these terminal devices has an individual terminal number, and operations such as submission and distribution are based on this terminal number.

FIG. 2 shows conventional MH3 operation. First, Teletex 2-a and 2-c should deliver a message to Teletex 2-d (deliver the message to MH3I).

This input message (hereinafter referred to as a telegram) is stored in the mailbox 4 as a telegram addressed to the teletex 2-d from the MHS host computer (hereinafter referred to as MHS host) 3. Next, when the teletex 2-d requests the MHS host 3 to retrieve the message, the MHS host 3 sends the message stored in the mailbox 4 to the teletex 2-d.
Pull out against d.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the different terminal output operation of this embodiment. The heretical non-output operation is an operation in which a message in a mailbox is retrieved from a terminal other than the actual destination terminal of the message.

First, the teletex 2-a and facsimile 2-b input messages addressed to Mr. A in the teletex 2-d and facsimile 2-e. When submitting a message, the person submitting the message specifies the number of the terminal device to which the message is to be sent and the recipient of the message. This input message is stored in the mailbox 4 by the MHS host 3 in the same manner as in the operation shown in FIG. Here, teletex 2-d is 7 of this telegram.
A request is sent to the VHS host 3 to extract only -a from Teletex 2-f. Then, the MHS host 3 causes the teletex 2-f to retrieve the message 7-a addressed to the teletex 2-d from the mailbox 4. Telegram 7 at this time
There is no change in the destination of -a, only the output teletext has changed. Also, if the message sent to the facsimile 2-e is facsimile data 7-b, the teletex 2-d requests the MHS host 3 to extract the message 7-b from the facsimile 2-e. By issuing this message, the MHS host 3 causes the facsimile 2-e to retrieve the message 7-b from the mailbox 4.

Note that the withdrawal request may be output from the teletex 2-f.

Figure 4 shows the operation of sorting between the own terminal and different terminals. own terminal,
Different terminal sorting operation means that if both text (character code data) and image (image data) exist as a message addressed to an individual, the text will be retrieved from the teletex and the image from the facsimile with the - times retrieval request. This made it possible.

First, teletex 2-81 facsimile 2-b sends input messages 7-a (text) and 7-b (image) to Mr. A of teletex 2-d and facsimile 2-e. The message is stored in the mailbox 4 as a message addressed to Mr. A of Tex 2-d. Next, message 7 addressed to Mr. A was sent to Teletex 2-d or MHS Host 3.
-a and 7-b, the MHS host 3 sends the messages 7-a and 7-b from the mailbox 4, sends the text data 7-a to the teletex 2-d and sends the image data 7-b to the facsimile. 2-e and output them separately.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of heretical non-output designation and different terminal distribution output operation. Heretical non-output designation and different terminal distribution output operations are those that, when text and images exist as telegrams addressed to a certain terminal, the text and images are distributed and output from different terminals.

First, when teletex 2-a1 facsimile 2-b sends a message to Mr. A of teletex 2-d and facsimile 2-e, MHS host 3
The message is stored in the mailbox 4 as a message addressed to Mr. A of d. Teletex 2-d then issues a request to MHS host 3 to retrieve the message addressed to Mr. A from Teletex 2-f, and MHS host 3 sends the message 7-a addressed to Mr. A from mailbox 4. 7-b as teletex data 7
-a to teletex 2-f, facsimile data 7-
b is output to facsimile 2-e. Here, the withdrawal request may be output from the teletex 2-f. In addition, in order to perform the operations shown in Figs. 4 and 5, M) (S host 3
The facsimile data has been registered to be output to the facsimile 2-e in the telegrams requested in advance by the teletex 2-d and teletex 2-f. Further, in this embodiment, there is only one facsimile machine for two teletex machines, but this number is of course not limited to this.

Next, send the outgoing data to the mailbox 4 in Figures 6 to 8.
The operation when directly specifying a terminal and performing distribution (hereinafter referred to as "immediate distribution") will be shown and explained next.

FIG. 6 shows the delivery procedure for immediate distribution and the center sorting and withdrawal procedure. Here, "center type" is a function that temporarily stores messages at the center machine in the event that there is some kind of failure on the receiving side during immediate delivery.

First, when Teletex 2-a sends immediate distribution to Teletex 2-d, MHS host 3 performs distribution to Teletex 2-d. Here teletex 2-d
When the delivery fails due to a temporary cause (failure, busy, etc.), the delivery is performed to a terminal registered in advance as a substitute terminal.

However, if all distributions fail due to a power outage or the like at the destination terminal, the MHS host 3 automatically stores the immediate distribution 5 in the mailbox 4 as an automatic center type. Here, this message 5 for immediate delivery in the mailbox 4 will be delivered when the other party's terminal returns, but even terminals other than those specified here can request withdrawal by specifying the message 5 for immediate delivery. It can be removed by doing this. This operation is performed by Teletex 2-c, for example. Furthermore, if a call completion notification request is attached, it is possible to issue a reception failure notification and discard the data in the event of a delivery failure, just like in conventional devices.

FIG. 7 shows the automatic withdrawal operation of the undeliverable message (center-like message at the time of immediate delivery) 5. In the operation shown in FIG. 6 described above, if the undeliverable message 5 is not retrieved from another terminal, the receiving terminal 21 specified at the time of immediate delivery returns and performs some operation on the MHS host 3, and then After the response, it is automatically retrieved from the mailbox 4 and output to the teletex 2-d.

FIG. 8 shows the automatic withdrawal operation of undeliverable messages 5-a and 5-b of facsimile (image) data. While instant delivery 6 is being delivered from facsimile 2-b to facsimile 2-e, each facsimile 2 is sent from another facsimile to
When instant delivery 5-a and 5-b are sent to facsimile machines 2-b and 2-e, they become like centers, and when the communication between facsimile machines 2-b and 2-8 is completed, MHS host 3 sends each delivery The unavailable messages 5-a and 5-b are automatically retrieved to the respective facsimile machines 2-b and 2-e.

In FIG. 9, an explanation will be given of the operation of extracting a message with a recitation number (hereinafter referred to as confidential mail) when heresy has not been output (see explanation in FIG. 3). First, Teletex 2-d is MHS host 3.
A request is made to send the message 8 to the facsimile machine 2-e. Then, the MHS host 3 extracts the message 8 from the mailbox 4 to the facsimile 2-e. Here, the MHS host 3 sends a request from the teletex 2-f (here, the teletex 2-f is used to simplify the explanation, but there is no restriction on the teletex used) to retrieve the confidential mail 9 to the facsimile 2-e. When issued against MHS
The host 3 temporarily interrupts the output at the page break of the message 8 currently being output, and causes the facsimile 2-e to retrieve the confidential mail 9. Furthermore, after the withdrawal of the confidential mail 9 is completed, the continuation of the message 8 that was being output previously is output again. Here, in order to realize the above-mentioned operation, only the confidential mail 9 is given priority. Also, when there is a withdrawal request for the same terminal for the same message, the MHS host 3
The person who received the message first has to pull out the message. In addition, when the facsimile 2-e receives a request to withdraw confidential mail 9 during the above-mentioned immediate delivery operation, after the immediate delivery operation is completed,
The confidential mail 9 is immediately retrieved from the facsimile 2-e.

Next, control flowcharts of the MHS host 3 that realizes the above operations are shown in FIGS. 10 to 14.

FIG. 10 shows the procedure for storing data in the mailbox 4.

First, when data is input, control information such as destination, data type, input source, etc. (control document, hereinafter referred to as CD)
) is analyzed by step SIO to determine whether the CD is normal or abnormal.
ll, and if normal, a normal response control document (hereinafter referred to as RCD) is delivered to the input terminal (512), and a message is input to the mailbox (S13).
). On the other hand, if the CD is abnormal, the abnormality RCD is delivered to the input terminal and abnormal termination processing is performed (S14.
515).

FIG. 11 shows processing operations during immediate distribution. SIO~S1
2. S14. The operation at S15 is similar to that shown in FIG.

In step S21, the CD is distributed to the destination terminal when the CD is normal. At this time, if the destination terminal is unable to receive the message, the message is distributed to a pre-designated proxy terminal.

If the distribution is possible, the distribution is performed to the destination terminal or the proxy terminal, and if there is a request for notification of the end of the distribution, a notification of the end of the distribution is returned to the originating side and the process ends (823-5
25).

On the other hand, if both the destination terminal and the proxy terminal are unable to receive the data, it is determined in S26 whether there is a request for notification of the end of distribution. If there is a notification request, a notification of non-delivery is sent to the sender in S27, and the immediate delivery message is deleted. If there is no notification request, the message is placed in the mailbox at 328. That is, center sorting processing is performed.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a process for retrieving a message from a designated destination terminal in a mailbox.

When there is a withdrawal request, the withdrawal request CD is analyzed (SIO), Sll, S12. S13. The process in S14 is the same as that in FIG.

If it is determined that the CD is normal, the message in the mailbox is output to the destination terminal specified by the sender (S31).

If an abnormality such as a paper jam occurs in the printer during output, only the normally retrieved message is erased, the others are left, and abnormal termination processing is performed (S33). When the abnormality is recovered, the remaining messages are output based on a request or automatically.

On the other hand, if no abnormality has occurred, after the withdrawal is completed, it is checked whether there is a center-like message addressed to the terminal that requested the withdrawal (S35).

If there is no center type message, the operation ends.

If there is a center type message, the deposited message is outputted to the terminal from which the withdrawal request was made in S36.

If the delivery of the center type message fails here, the type of the message is analyzed using the CD of the received message, and the type of message (
If the type (text, image) and terminal type (teletex, facsimile) are different, a notification of inability is issued to the originating terminal and the message is deleted (S41). On the other hand, if there is an abnormality on the terminal side, the center-like message will be distributed again.

FIG. 13 is a control flowchart of a message output operation (heretical non-output operation) to a terminal different from the destination terminal of the message in the mailbox. The CD is analyzed in the same manner as in FIG. 12, and if it is normal, the different terminal and output message are specified in S51 based on the different terminal designation code and output message code included in the withdrawal request. If there is an error in the specification, a message indicating the error is output to the withdrawal request terminal in S53.

If the designation is normal, the normal message in the mailbox is withdrawn (855-858) or the center-type message is withdrawn (835-541). The withdrawal operation of the center type message is the same as that shown in FIG.

35 normal messages other than center type in the mailbox
5. Delete only messages that were output and successfully delivered from the mailbox. When the normal delivery is completed, the process proceeds to check whether there is a center-like message (S35).

Next, the operation when retrieving a confidential message from a different terminal will be explained using FIG.

The operation of 5IO-si4 is as described above. In S61, the confidential message and the terminal to be output are specified based on the analysis result of the output request CD.

If the designated terminal is not busy but free, the process proceeds to steps 354 and subsequent steps in FIG. 13 to check whether the message is a secessor type message or something else.

If the designated terminal is busy, it is checked whether the designated terminal is currently delivering instant delivery (S63).

If immediate delivery is in progress, a confidential email is output after all immediate delivery messages have been output (S64).

At this time, if there is an abnormality in the delivery, an abnormal message is output to the terminal that made the confidential output request, and only the normally delivered message is deleted (S66).

On the other hand, if it is determined in S63 that immediate distribution is not in progress, when the distribution of the page currently being distributed is completed, the distribution will be interrupted at - 567), and a confidential email will be distributed (S6
8).

If there is an abnormality during delivery of the confidential mail, a message indicating that the abnormality has occurred is output to the terminal that output the confidential output request, and only the normally delivered message is deleted (S70).

Thereafter, the distribution operation interrupted in S71 is resumed.

FIG. 15 shows a control flowchart for the distribution of text data and image data explained in FIG. 4. FIG. 15 shows a process in which text data is output to the same terminal as the designated terminal of the message, and image data is output to a facsimile machine registered in the host 3 in pair with the same terminal.

In step SIO, the withdrawal request CD and the CD of the message specified by the request CD are analyzed.

In S81, it is checked whether the request designation terminal specified in the withdrawal request CD and the message designation terminal specified in the message CD match. If they match, the message is treated as text information and the text information is retrieved from 890 onwards.

If they do not match, the type of the message is analyzed at 382, and if it is image data, the image data is output to the facsimile registered in the host 3 in pair with the message designated terminal (S84).

On the other hand, in the case of text information, abnormality processing is performed.

After repeating the above process for all messages in this way,
I proceed to process the message deposited at the center as explained earlier.

Next, referring to FIG. 16, the operation of distributing and outputting text and images to a teletex terminal and a facsimile terminal different from the designated terminal of the message will be explained.

Analyze the request CD and message CD with SIO.

It is determined in 8101 whether the message is text or an image, and if it is text, in 5103 the text information is output to the terminal specified by the requested CD. On the other hand, if it is an image, the image data is outputted in step 5102 to the facsimile machine registered as a pair with the terminal specified by the requested CD. This process is repeated for all messages.

With the above configuration, both text and images can be retrieved with a single retrieval request, and there is no need to specify text and images individually.

Figure 17 shows the Teletex CR when making a withdrawal request.
3 shows a display screen displayed on a T display screen.

As input information, a mailbox number, recipient name, and output format are specified as search conditions 17.

Also, input the selection number in document selection 18 as a selection condition,
Enter the terminal number as output terminal unspecified 19.

By specifying the output terminal in this way, it becomes possible to extract from both the own terminal and a different terminal.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, if the failure of the delivery designated terminal continues for a long time during immediate delivery, a request for withdrawal of the center-like message and a message withdrawal request can be made from a terminal other than the delivery designated terminal or the proxy terminal. By making this possible, the message can be withdrawn without waiting for the delivery designated terminal to recover. Additionally, this makes it possible to quickly deliver the amount of messages sent to the center, which has the effect of shortening the time it takes to wait for failure recovery.

In this embodiment, the receiving side specifies and registers the proxy terminal, but if it is also possible to specify the secondary terminal from the input side terminal, the number of proxy terminals will increase and the possibility of delivery in an emergency will increase. . In addition, although automatic delivery is performed only when the designated terminal recovers this time, it is possible to receive undeliverable messages in a shorter time by setting the frame to be automatically delivered when the designated terminal recovers, including proxy terminals.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to retrieve a message in the storage means from a terminal other than the receiving terminal designated at the time of inputting the message.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the system of this embodiment, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the conventional operation, Figs. 3 to 9 are block diagrams showing the operation of this embodiment, and Figs. 10 to 16. 17 is a control flowchart of the MHS host 3, and FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a display diagram when a withdrawal request is made. 1 is the center machine of the MHS system, 2-a, 2-c, 2
-d and 2-f are teletex terminals, 2-b and 2-e are facsimile terminals, 3 is a central computer, and 4 is a mailbox for storage.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a message communication system having a plurality of telematics terminals and a switching device, the specified message is stored in the storage means of the switching device and is specified by an output terminal, so as to be output from a different terminal other than the specified designated terminal. A message communication system characterized by having means for responding to a request for changing an output terminal from the terminal or another terminal.