Method and system to file relayed e-mails

• US 20060168036A1
• Filed: 12/21/2004
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Fuller, Kim E., Stebbins, Simon M., Schulz, Karsten A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,002,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method and a system to file relayed e-mails is provided. The method includes receiving an e-mail, the e-mail including addressing information in an e-mail header and an the e-mail body. The e-mail is parsed to obtain the addressing information from the e-mail header and the e-mail body, after which the addressing information is extracted from the parsed e-mail. This formation is stored and used to generate a participant list, which is provided to the user. The user relies on this participant list to file e-mails in e-mail folders associated with a participant that the user selects from the participant list. The participant list is presented to a user to enable the user to select a participant from the participant list.

Claims

1. A system to file relayed e-mails, the system including:

a parsing module to

parse an e-mail to obtain addressing information from an e-mail header and body, and

extract the addressing information from the parsed e-mail;

a memory to store the addressing information; and

a participant list module to

generate a participant list from the stored addressing information, and

provide the participant list to a user to enable the user to select a participant from the participant list.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the participant list module is to provide the participant list to enable the user to select a participant with which content of the e-mail is most closely associated.

3. The system of claim 1, including a filing module to file the e-mail based on the selected participant.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the filing module is to provide a target list of filing targets for the e-mail, the target list being based on the selected participant.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the filing module is to select the filing targets of the target list from a set of filing targets previously selected by the user for the filing of e-mails associated with the selected participant.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the target list comprises a list of folders maintained in the system for the filing of e-mails.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the addressing information includes at least a sender and recipient'"'"'s e-mail address obtained from the header of the e-mail and at least a sender and recipient'"'"'s e-mail address obtained from at least one header of a previously sent and relayed e-mail located in the e-mail body.

8. The system of claim 1, further including a prioritizing module to prioritize the stored addressing information.

9. The system of claim 7, further including a first database containing hierarchical information linked to addressing information.

10. The system of claim 7, further including a second database containing filing information linked to addressing information.

11. A method to file relayed e-mails, the method including:

receiving an e-mail, the e-mail including addressing information in an e-mail header and an the e-mail body;

parsing the e-mail to obtain addressing information from the e-mail header and the e-mail body;

extracting the addressing information from the parsed e-mail;

storing the addressing information;

generating a participant list from the extracted addressing information; and

providing the participant list to a user to enable the user to select a participant from the participant list.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the addressing information includes at least a sender and recipient'"'"'s e-mail address obtained from the header of the e-mail and at least a sender and recipient'"'"'s e-mail address obtained from at least one header of a previously sent and relayed e-mail located in the e-mail body.

13. The method of claim 11 further including providing the user with a list of pre-determined criteria for prioritizing the participant list.

14. The method of claim 12 further including receiving a selected criteria selection from the user.

15. The method of claim 14 further including prioritizing the participant list according to a predetermined criterion.

16. The method of claim 15 including identifying a chronology of senders in the e-mail, and prioritizing the participant list according to the chronology.

17. The method of claim 15 including providing a high priority, within the participant list, to a more recent sender in the chronology of senders.

18. The method of claim 15, including providing a high priority, within the participant list, to an original sender in the chronology of senders.

19. The method of claim 15 including identifying a sending frequency for each sender in the e-mail, and prioritizing the participant list according to the sending frequencies of the respective senders.

20. The method of claim 15 further including accessing a database containing hierarchical data linking the e-mail addresses stored in the memory to hierarchical positions and prioritizing the participant list according to this hierarchical data.

21. The method of claim 15 wherein the participant list provided to the user is a prioritized participant list.

22. The method of claim 12 including receiving a selected participant selection from the user.

23. The method of claim 22 further including accessing a second database containing filing information associated with the selected participant and linking the associated filing information with the addressing information of the selected participant.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the filing information is a list of e-mail folders associated with the selected participant.

25. The method of claim 24 further including providing the list of e-mail folders associated with the selected participant to the user.

26. The method of claim 25 further including receiving an e-mail folder selection from the user and associating the e-mail with the selected folder.

27. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the method of claim 11.

28. A system to file relayed e-mails, the system including:

first means for

parsing an e-mail to obtain addressing information from an e-mail header and body, and

extracting the addressing information from the parsed e-mail;

second means for storing the addressing information;

third means for

generating a participant list from the stored addressing information, and

providing the participant list to a user to enable the user to select a participant from the participant list.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the third means is for providing the participant list to enable the user to select a participant with which content of the e-mail is most closely associated.

30. The system of claim 28, including fourth means for filing the e-mail based on the selected participant.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the fourth means is for providing a target list of filing targets for the e-mail, the target list being based on the selected participant.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the fourth means is for selecting the filing targets of the target list from a set of filing targets previously selected by the user for the filing of e-mails associated with the selected participant.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the target list comprises a list of folders maintained in the system for the filing of e-mails.

34. The system of claim 28, wherein the addressing information includes at least a sender and recipient'"'"'s e-mail address obtained from the header of the e-mail and at least a sender and recipient'"'"'s e-mail address obtained from at least one header of a previously sent and relayed e-mail located in the e-mail body.

35. The system of claim 28, further including fifth means for prioritizing the stored addressing information.

36. The system of claim 34, further including sixth means containing hierarchical information linked to addressing information.

37. The system of claim 34 further including seventh means containing filing information linked to addressing information.