Method and apparatus for managing electronic messages

• US 20050283461A1
• Filed: 06/02/2005
• Published: 12/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ip Ot Sub Ulc
• Original Assignee: Open Text Corporation
• Inventors: Winter, Christian, Heiss, Franz, Sell, Jorg-Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 8,073,822 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

A method is provided for the storage-efficient management of electronic messages, wherein a message that is to be managed is first received, the message is decomposed into a basic structure and file attachments contained in the message, a unique identification value is calculated for each file attachment, the file attachment is stored as a file with a respective identification value for which no file exists in the storage, or a reference counter of the file attachment for whose identification value a file already exists in the storage, is incremented, and the basic structure with references to the files in the storage, which references correspond to the file attachments originally contained in the message, is stored.

Claims

1. A method for the storage-efficient management of electronic messages, comprising:

decomposing a message into a basic structure and file attachments contained in the message;

calculating a separate identification value for each one of the file attachments;

storing the file attachments as files with respective identification values for which no file already exists in storage;

incrementing a reference counter of one of the file attachments for whose identification value a file already exists in the storage; and

storing the basic structure with references to the files in the storage, which references correspond to the file attachments contained in the message.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein file attachments contained in the message are, in turn, messages with file attachments, and the message is recursively decomposed until all messages and file attachments are replaced in the basic structure by references.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein, following the decomposition, the file attachments are stored individually on an archive server, and the archive server calculates the identification value for each file attachment and checks, on the basis of the identification value, whether the file attachment is already stored as a file on the archive server.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein for each file attachment, a unique file identification code is calculated and stored as a reference in the basic structure.

5. The method according to claims 3, wherein the file attachment is stored as a new file, and a reference counter for the new file is initialised if no file exists for the calculated identification value.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification value is a unique hash value of the respective file attachment.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the electronicmessages are e-mails with file attachments which are sent and received by an e-mail server and archived on an archive server, as a result of which reference files, without file attachments, which refer to the corresponding archived e-mails, remain on the e-mail server.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data contained in the message in addition to the file attachments are stored separately, as files with an identification value, and the basic structure itself contains no data, but only references.

9. A method for reconstructing electronic messages which are managed using a method according to claim 1, comprising:

reading of the basic structure of the message;

retrieving from the storage those files to which the references in the basic structure refer; and

replacing the references by the files as the file attachments of the message to be reconstructed.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein references refer to files which, in turn, contain references, and the references are recursively replaced by corresponding files, until the references are replaced by files.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the basic structure containing references is read by the archive server when a request to call-up the message is directed to a message server, in the references, unique file identification codes reference stored files, these files are read by the archive server and the read files are inserted as file attachments into the basic structure, and the reconstructed message replaces the corresponding reference file on the message server.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein, for the purpose of reading the basic structure, an assignment code is transferred to the archive server out of the reference file corresponding to the message.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein, upon deletion of a message, the reference counters of the files referenced in the references of the basic structure of the message to be deleted are decremented.

14. A computer program containing executable program code for the storage-efficient management of electronic messages, the computer executable code comprising:

a first code portion configured to decompose a message into a basic structure and file attachments contained in the message;

a second code portion configured to calculate of a separate identification value for each one of the file attachments;

a third code portion configured to store the file attachment as a files with respective identification values for which no file already exists in storage;

a fourth code portion configured to increment of a reference counter of one of the file attachments for whose identification value a file already exists in the storage; and

a fifth code portion configured to store the basic structure with references to the files in the storage, which references correspond to the file attachments contained in the message.

15. An electronic storage medium for storing computer executable code for the storage-efficient management of electronic messages, the computer executable code comprising the computer program of claim 14 in computer executable form.

16. A system for the storage-efficient management of electronic messages, comprising:

an archive server, comprising a first processor, a first storage, a message swapping-out module, an identification value calculation module and a reference counter management module,

wherein the message swapping-out module, by application of the first processor, divides a message that is to be managed into a basic structure and the file attachments contained in the message, both the basic structure, with references to the file attachments contained in the message, and the file attachments are in each case stored separately in the first storage, the identification value calculation module calculates an identification value for each file attachment and, if this identification value has not hitherto been assigned, the file attachment is stored in the storage with the identification value, otherwise, if a file having the calculated identification value already exists in the first storage, the file attachment is not stored over again, but the reference counter management module increments the reference counter of the existing file.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the archive server additionally comprises a message reconstruction module which, by application of the first processor, upon a request for calling-up of an archived message, reads both the corresponding basic structure, with references, and the files referenced in the references, from the first storage, in the basic structure replaces the references by the files and stores the thus reconstructed message in the first storage and/or sends it to a message server or client.

18. A message server which is connectable to a system according to claims 16, comprising a second processor and a second storage, wherein the message that is to be managed is first stored in the second storage, transferred to the archive server and replaced in the first storage by a reference file having an assignment code, and the assignment code refers to the message basic structure in the first storage.

19. A message client which is connectable to a system according to claims 16, comprising a third processor, a third storage, a display screen, at least one input device and a message client module, wherein a user is enabled, by means of the input device and through the message client module in combination with the third processor, to call up messages from the message server, in a user interface of the message client module on the display screen, to display said messages on the screen and store them in a storage-efficient manner on the archive server.

20. A method for the storage-efficient management of electronic messages on an archive server, comprising:

recursively decomposing of the message into a basic structure and file attachments contained in the message;

calculating a unique file identification code for each one of the file attachments;

calculating a unique hash value for each one of the file attachments;

checking on the basis of the hash value whether the file attachments already exist as files on the archive server;

storing the file attachments as files with a respective file identification code and hash value for which no file with identical hash value exists on the archive server;

in case a file with identical hash value already exists on the archive server;

adding the file identification code of the respective file attachment and incrementing a reference counter of the already existing file;

returning the file identification codes of the file attachments contained in the message to the basic structure; and

storing of the basic structure with the file identification codes as references to the files on the archive server, which references correspond to the file attachments contained in the message.

21. A system for the storage-efficient management of electronic messages, comprising:

an archive server, comprising a first processor, a first storage, a message swapping-out module, a hash value calculation module, a file identification code calculation module and a reference counter management module; and

wherein the message swapping-out module recursively divides a message that is to be managed into a basic structure and the file attachments contained in the message; and

both the basic structure, with references to the file attachments contained in the message, and the file attachments are in each case stored separately in the first storage, the file identification code calculation module calculates a file identification code for each file attachment, the hash value calculation module calculates a hash value for each file attachment and, if this hash value has not hitherto been assigned, the file attachment is stored in the first storage with the file identification code and the hash value, otherwise, if a file having the calculated hash value already exists in the first storage, the file attachment is not stored over again, but the reference counter management module increments the reference counter of the existing file, adds the further file identification code to the existing file, returns the file identification code to the basic structure as reference to the existing file and stores the file identification code with the basic structure.