System and method of indexing unique electronic mail messages and uses for the same
First Claim
1. A method for identifying a unique electronic mail message in a plurality of electronic email messages extracted from an electronic mail messaging system, the method comprising:
- retrieving a message from a mailbox on the electronic mail messaging system, the message including a plurality of message properties;
computing a message tag from at least a portion of the plurality of message properties;
reviewing a list of message tags stored in an index file; and
determining whether the message is unique based upon whether the message tag is found in an index file.
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Abstract
A system and method of identifying unique email messages in a large scale enterprise environment using an external server and a database system. Message uniqueness is determined by assigning an message tag to each message based on properties of the email message. The message tag may be computed using a hashing algorithm to speed indexing and comparisons. The message tag is compared with an index file of message tags associated with pre-existing email messages. If a matching message tag is found in the index file, the email message is not unique. Otherwise, the email message is unique and the message tag is added to the index file. The system may include a relational database for storing the index file. An archiving system and method using the uniqueness checking feature of the present invention are also disclosed.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method for identifying a unique electronic mail message in a plurality of electronic email messages extracted from an electronic mail messaging system, the method comprising:
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retrieving a message from a mailbox on the electronic mail messaging system, the message including a plurality of message properties;
computing a message tag from at least a portion of the plurality of message properties;
reviewing a list of message tags stored in an index file; and
determining whether the message is unique based upon whether the message tag is found in an index file. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for archiving a plurality of electronic mail messages in a system external to an electronic mail messaging system, the method comprising:
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reading a first message from a first mailbox on the electronic mail messaging system, the first message including at least a first sender'"'"'s name and at least a first sender'"'"'s submission time;
computing a first message tag from the first sender'"'"'s name and the first sender'"'"'s submission time;
storing the first message in a message archive and storing the first message tag in an index file associated with the message archive;
reading a second message from a second mailbox on the electronic mail messaging system, the second message including at least a second sender'"'"'s name and at least a second sender'"'"'s submission time;
computing a second message tag from the second sender'"'"'s name and the second sender'"'"'s submission time;
comparing the second message tag with the first message tag; and
storing the second message in the message archive and storing the second message tag in the index file if the first and second message tags are not the same. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 29)
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15. A system for identifying a unique electronic mail message, wherein the system is external to an electronic mail messaging system, the system comprising:
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means for reading an electronic mail message from a mailbox on the electronic mail messaging system, the electronic mail message including a plurality of message properties;
means for computing a message tag from a least two properties selected from the plurality of message properties;
means for comparing the message tag with a list of message tags stored in an index file; and
means for determining that the message is unique if the message tag is not in the index file.
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21. A system for identifying a unique electronic mail message, wherein the system is external to an electronic mail messaging system, the system comprising:
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a uniqueness checker in communication with the electronic mail messaging system; and
an index file comprising a plurality of pre-determined message tags, wherein the uniqueness checker is configured to read a message from the electronic mail messaging system, wherein the message includes a plurality of properties associated with the message, wherein the uniqueness checker computes a message tag for the message using at least two of the properties, and compares the computed message tag with the index file, wherein if the computed message tag matches an entry in the index file, the uniqueness checker determines that the message is not unique, otherwise, if the computed message tag does not match an entry in the index file, the computed message tag is added to the index file. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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30. A system for archiving a plurality of electronic mail messages, wherein the system is external to an electronic mail messaging system, the system comprising:
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means for reading a first message from a first mailbox on the electronic mail messaging system, the first message including at least a first sender'"'"'s name and at least a first sender'"'"'s submission time;
means for computing a first message tag from the first sender'"'"'s name and the first sender'"'"'s submission time;
means for storing the first message in a message archive and storing the first message tag in an index file associated with the message archive;
means for reading a second message from a second mailbox on the electronic mail messaging system, the second message including at least a second sender'"'"'s name and at least a second sender'"'"'s submission time;
means for computing a second message tag from the second sender'"'"'s name and the second sender'"'"'s submission time;
means for comparing the second message tag with the first message tag; and
means for storing the second message in the message archive and storing the second message tag in the index file if the first and second message tags are not the same. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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37. A system for externally archiving a plurality of electronic mail messages selected from an electronic mail messaging system, the system comprising:
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an archive server in communication with the electronic mail messaging system;
a uniqueness checker in communication with the archive server; and
an archive message store in communication with the archive server, wherein when the archive server reads a message from the electronic mail messaging system, a plurality of properties associated with the message are sent from the archive server to the uniqueness checker, wherein the uniqueness checker computes a message tag for the message using at least two of the properties, and compares the computed message tag with an index file, wherein if the computed message tag matches an entry in the index file, the uniqueness checker indicates to the archive server that the message is not unique, otherwise, if the computed message tag does not match an entry in the index file, the computed message tag is added to the index file, wherein if the message is unique, the archive server stores the message in the archive message store.
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Specification