METHODS FOR SENDING AN EMAIL AND DISTRIBUTING AN EMAIL AND AN EMAIL SERVER

• US 20090248823A1
• Filed: 03/27/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zheng, Yan, Liu, Xue Zhe, Yang, Zhi Lei, Li, Jane
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages

Abstract

The present application relates to methods for sending an email and distributing an email, and an email server. According to the application, a summary is generated for an email to be sent, with the email stored in a sender side server; the summary of the email is sent to a receiver side server; and the email is sent to the receiver side server in response to receiving, by the sender side server, a request for sending the email, the request being sent by a recipient based on the summary. Thus, the network bandwidth, the storage space of the email server and user terminals may be saved.

Claims

1. A method for sending an email, comprising steps of:

generating a summary of an email to be sent, the email being stored in a sender side server;

sending the summary of the email to a receiver side server;

receiving from the sender side server a request for sending the e-mail; and

sending the email to the receiver side server in response to receiving the request for sending the email.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an access list based on recipient information of the email, the access list containing an address of every recipient in the email; and

,

accepting the request for sending the email only when the request is sent by a recipient in the access list.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, sending the email to the receiver side server, comprises:

if the recipient saves the email, then deleting the recipient from the access list; and

if the recipient does not save the email, deleting the recipient from the access list in response to a deleting, by the recipient, of the summary.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising;

deleting the email from the sender side server in response to a number of recipients or domains in the access list becoming lower than a threshold; and

deleting the email from the sender side server in response to a lapse of time of the email having been stored in the sender side server that exceed a threshold.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein:

in response to receiving the request for sending the email, after sending the email to the receiver side server, deleting all the recipients in a same domain as the recipient from the access list, saving the email into the receiver side server, and generating a second access list containing all the recipients in the same domain as the recipient; and

in response to receiving a request for sending the email sent by a recipient in the second access list, distributing the email to the recipient, and, if the recipient saves the email, then deleting the recipient from the second access list, but if the recipient does not save the email, then deleting the recipient from the second access list in response to the recipient deleting the summary.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein,

deleting the email from the receiver side server in response to a number of recipients in the second access list becoming lower than a threshold;

and

deleting the email from the receiver side server in response to a lapse of time of the email having been stored in the receiver side server that exceeds a threshold.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein, before deleting the email from the sender side server, notifying all recipients in the access list that the email is to be deleted from the sender side server.

8. The method according to claims 1, wherein generating a summary of an email to be sent further comprises the steps of:

determining whether to generate the summary of the email according to at least one of a size of the email, a number of recipients and a number of domains; and

,

sending the email directly to the receiver side server if a result of the determining step is not to generate the summary of the email, but otherwise generating the summary of the email if the result of the determining step is to generate the summary of the email.

9. A method for distributing an email to a user from an email server, comprising steps of:

obtaining a summary of an email to be distributed that is separate from the e-mail, the email being stored in a sender side server;

putting the summary of the email into an email box of the user; and

distributing the email to the user in response to receiving, by the email server, a request for reading the email sent by the user based on the summary.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the the steps of:

generating an access list based on recipient information of the email, the access list containing every recipient in the email; and

,

accepting the request for sending the email only when the request is sent by a user in the access list.

11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising deleting the email from the email server in response to a lapse of time of the email in the email server exceeding a threshold.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising, before deleting the email from the email server, notifying each recipient in the access list that the email is to be deleted from the email server.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the step of obtaining the summary of the email to be distributed comprises generating the summary of the email to be distributed.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein generating the summary of the email to be distributed further comprises the steps of:

determining whether to generate the summary of the email according to at least one of a size of the email, a number of recipients and a number of domains; and

,

distributing the email directly to the user if a result of the determining step is not to generate the summary of the email, but otherwise generating the summary of the email if the result of the determining step is to generate the summary of the email.

15. An email server, comprising:

an email filter adapted to filter an email according to predetermined criteria;

a summary generator adapted to generate a summary of an email separately stored from the e-mail;

a router handler adapted to call an email router to send the summary to receiver email boxes, or directly put the summary into the receiver email boxes; and

a controller adapted to conduct control of e-mails so that;

(1) for an email not complying with the criteria filtered out by the email filter, the router handler calls the email router to send the email directly to the receiver email boxes, or puts the email directly into the receiver email boxes; and

,

(2) for an email complying with the criteria filtered out by the email filter, the summary generator generates a summary of the email, and the router handler calls the email router to send the summary to the receiver email boxes, or puts the summary directly into the receiver email boxes.

16. The email server according to claim 15, wherein, the email filter is configured to filter the email according to at least one of a size of the email, a number of recipients and a number of domains.

17. The email server according to claim 15, further comprising:

an email repository adapted to store the email complying with the criteria filtered out by the email filter;

wherein, the router handler is further configured to detect the requests from recipients, and to call the email router to send the email stored in the email repository to the receiver side email server if a request for obtaining the email sent by a recipient having read the summary is detected.

18. The email server according to claim 17, further comprising:

an access list controller adapted, with respect to the email complying with the criteria filtered out by the email filter, to generate and maintain an access list based on the recipient information in the email, in response to the email being sent or distributed to the recipient who saves the email thereafter, to delete the recipient from the access list;

to delete the recipient from the access list if the recipient does not save the email but deletes the summary;

the access list controller being further configured to delete the email from the email repository in response to either a number of recipients or a number of domains in the access list.

19. The email server according to claim 18, wherein the access list controller further comprises a timer for counting time elapsed from storing the email in the email repository, the access list controller being yet further configured delete the email from the email repository in response to a time indicated by the timer exceeding a threshold.

20. The email server according to claim 15, wherein the controller is further configured to identify the summary of the email received from an other email server, and, in response to a first time request to read the email by a recipient, to control the router handler to request to receive the email from the other email server, and to store the received email in the email repository or to put the received email directly into the receiver email boxes.