CN101163114A - Method, system and device for notifying mobile mail state - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a method, which can inform of the state of a mobile mail. The invention comprises following steps: a mobile mail client end establishes a connection with a mail server. When the event that the states of a mail in an unselected mail file changing is detected, the mail server produces a notification, which comprises the event that the state of the mail changing. And the notification is sent to the mobile mail client end by the mail server. The invention also discloses a mobile mail state notification system, the mail server and the mobile mail client end. With the technical proposal of the invention, the user can get all the detection and notification about the states of the mails in needed simultaneous mail file without establishing a dialogue with every mail. The mobile mail client end can update the state of the mail according to the notification, so the invention can improve the simultaneous efficiencies of the mobile mail client end and the mail server, reduce the operations of the user and improve the experiences of the user.

Description

Method, system and device for notifying mobile mail status

technical field

The invention relates to the technical field of mobile communication networks, in particular to a method for notifying the state of mobile mail, a system for notifying the state of mobile mail, a mail server and a mobile mail client.

Background technique

With the development of mobile communication technology, Internet (Internet) applications are extended to the field of mobile applications. E-mail plays an important role in Internet applications. The mobile e-mail service is an extension of traditional Internet e-mail. It supports editing and sending and receiving e-mails using mobile terminal equipment, and can seamlessly integrate with Internet e-mail services.

In order to realize the synchronization between the mail server and the mobile mail client, when mail events such as new mail arrival and mail status change occur in the user mailbox in the mail server, the mail server will notify the mobile mail client of the mail event. There are two notification methods: in-band notification and out-of-band notification. When there is no connection between the mobile mail client and the mail server, an out-of-band notification method such as SMS notification can be used; when a connection is established between the mobile mail client and the mail server, the in-band notification method can be used. Push email events directly to mobile email clients through the unsolicited response provided by the email server.

In the in-band notification method, after the mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server and selects a mail folder for operation, the mail server detects new mail events and mail state change events in the currently selected mail folder, and detects unselected mail If the above-mentioned mail event is detected, the detected mail event will be notified to the mobile mail client through the IMAP response according to the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). After the mobile email client receives the email event, it performs corresponding operations, such as downloading new emails, updating the corresponding email status, etc., to realize email synchronization.

In the above-mentioned in-band notification method, detection and notification of mail status change events in unselected mail folders cannot be realized, which affects the effect of synchronization between the mobile mail client and the mail server.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for notifying the state of mobile mail, a system for notifying the state of mobile mail, a mail server and a mobile mail client, which can improve the effect of in-band notification.

In order to achieve the first aspect of the above object, the present invention provides a method for notifying the state of mobile mail, the method includes:

The mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server, and after the mail server detects the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, it generates a notification including the mail state change event, and sends the notification to the mobile mail client.

Preferably, the method further comprises:

After receiving the notification, the mobile email client updates the state of the corresponding email in itself according to the event in the notification.

Preferably, the notification includes: mail folder name, mail identifier and mail status.

The notification may be a status response.

The notification can also be a get response.

The notification may include one or more mail state change events in the same mail folder, and the mail identifier and mail state correspondingly include one or more groups.

Preferably, the mobile email client updating the state of the corresponding email in itself according to the event in the notification includes:

The mobile mail client locates the mail stored in itself according to the mail folder name and mail identifier in the notification, and updates the status of the mail to the mail status included in the notification.

In order to achieve the second aspect of the above object, the present invention provides a system for notifying the state of mobile mail, including: a mail server and a mobile mail client;

The mail server is used to establish a connection with the mail client, and detect the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, generate a notification including the detected mail state change event, and send the notification to the mobile mail client;

The mobile mail client is used to establish a connection with the mail server, receive a notification from the mail server including the change event of the mail in the unselected mail folder, or further update the state of the corresponding mail in itself according to the event in the notification.

In order to achieve the third aspect of the above object, the present invention provides a mail server, including: a mail storage library, a notification generating module and a notification sending module;

The mail repository is used to store user mail;

The notification generation module is used to detect the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, generate a notification including the detected mail state change event, and send the notification to the notification sending module;

The notification sending module is used for sending the notification from the notification generating module to the mobile mail client.

In order to achieve the fourth aspect of the above object, the present invention provides a mobile mail client, including: a notification parsing module and a mail storage;

The notification parsing module is used to receive the notification from the mail server including the status change event of the mail in the unselected mail folder, and update the status of the corresponding mail in the mail repository according to the notification;

Mail stores are used to store users' mail.

As can be seen from the foregoing scheme, in the present invention, the mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server, and after the mail server detects the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, it generates a notification including the mail state change event, and sends The notification is sent to the mobile mail client, which improves the effectiveness of in-band notifications;

And, since in the present invention, the detection and notification of the mail state change event in all the mail folders that need to be synchronized can be realized without the need for the user to establish a session with each mail folder, the user's operation load is reduced, and the user's time and energy are saved. Improved user experience;

In addition, in the present invention, the mobile mail client updates the state of the corresponding mail according to the received notification, thereby improving the synchronization effect between the mobile mail client and the mail server.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the composition of the system for notifying the state of mobile mail in the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the overall flow chart of the method for notifying the status of mobile mail in the present invention;

Fig. 3 is the flow chart that the inventive method is applied in the IMAP protocol and realizes the synchronization of the mobile mail client and the server;

Fig. 4 is a kind of processing flowchart of mobile mail client in the method of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is another kind of processing flowchart of mobile mail client in the method of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a specific example of the method of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the object, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The main idea of the present invention is that the mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server, and after the mail server detects the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, it generates a notification including the mail state change event, and sends the notification to the mobile mail server. The mail client, so that the mail server notifies the mobile mail client of the mail status change event in the unselected mail folder by using an in-band notification method.

The unselected mail folder in the present invention is a folder that is not opened by an open folder command (SELECT) or a read-only mode to open a folder command (EXAMINE).

The composition of the system for notifying the state of mobile mail in the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 , including a mail server and a mobile mail client.

The mail server is used to establish a connection with the mobile mail client. After the mobile mail client accesses the mail folder, it detects the mail status change event in the unselected mail folder, and generates a mail status change event based on the detected mail status change event. Notification of the event, sent to the mobile mail client. In addition, the mail server can also detect new mail events of selected mail folders and unselected mail folders of the mobile mail client, and mail state change events in the selected mail folders, and generate notifications including these events according to the detected events to a mobile mail client. The notification here can be a status response (STATUS response) or a get response (FETCH response).

The mobile mail client is used to establish a connection with the mail server, receive notifications from the mail server including mail state change events in unselected mail folders, read the events therein, and update the state of the corresponding mail according to the read events. In addition, the mobile mail client also receives notifications including other events from the mail server, such as new mail events or status change events of mails in selected mail folders, and updates corresponding mail folders or mails according to the events in the notification.

Specifically, it can be seen from FIG. 1 that the above-mentioned mail server includes: a mail repository, a notification generating module and a notification sending module. in:

The mail repository is used to store user mail, including several mail folders. After the mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server, select one of the mail folders to operate. This mail folder is selected, and other mail folders are unselected. .

The notification generation module is used to detect the mail event that takes place, including the new mail event of the selected mail folder and the unselected mail folder, the mail status change event of the selected mail folder and the unselected mail folder, and generates a message including the event according to the detected event notification, and transmit the notification to the notification sending module. Specifically, in the present invention, after the notification generation module detects the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, it sets the name of the mail folder, the mail identifier of the mail with a state change, and the changed mail state in the status response or acquisition response, And transmit the status response or the acquisition response to the notification sending module.

The notification sending module is used for sending the notification to the mobile mail client according to the notification from the notification generating module, such as status response or acquisition response.

Specifically, it can be seen from FIG. 1 that the mobile email client includes: a notification parsing module and an email storage library. in:

The notification parsing module is used to receive notifications from the mail server, and locate corresponding mail folders or mails in the mail repository of the mobile mail client according to the notification, and update the status of the mail folders or mails, so that the mobile mail client Mail is synchronized with mail in the mail server. Specifically, when the notification is a status response, after receiving the status response including the name of the mail folder, the mail ID and the status of the mail, the notification parsing module locates the corresponding email address in the mail repository of the mobile mail client according to the mail folder name and the mail ID. mail, and update the status of the mail according to the status of the mail in the status response; when the notification is a get response, if the get response received by the notification parsing module includes the mail folder name, mail identifier and mail status, then according to the mail folder name and The email identifier locates the corresponding email in the email repository of the mobile email client, and updates the status of the email to the email status in the acquisition response. If the acquisition response received by the notification parsing module does not include the email folder name, then the technology is processed.

The mail repository is used to store the user's local mail, where the user's local mail is the mail filtered by the filtering rules in the mail repository of the mail server. In addition, the mails in the unselected mail folder and the selected mail folder referred to in the present invention all refer to mails filtered by filtering rules.

The overall flow of the method for notifying the state of the mobile mail in the present invention is shown in Figure 2, including the following steps:

Step 201, the mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server;

Step 202: After the mail server detects the mail status change event in the unselected mail folder, it generates a notification including the event, and sends the notification to the mobile mail client.

The notification above can be a status response or a get response.

The existing status response carries relevant information about the unselected mail folder, including the name of the mail folder and status information. The status information can specifically include data items: the total number of mails in the MESSAGE mail folder, the number of messages marked as \RECENT in the RECENT mail folder Number of messages, UIDNEXT The next unique identifier (UID) that can be assigned to a new message, the UID validity flag of the UIDVALIDITY mail folder, and the number of mail marked as \UNSEEN in the UNSEEN mail folder.

Therefore, in the present invention, when the state response is used to carry the mail state change event of the unselected mail folder, the data items included in the state information need to be expanded to add optional data items: UID mail identification, and FLAGS mail state. Among them, the mail ID is the unique identification of the mail whose state has changed in the unselected mail folder, and the mail status can be \unseen, \seen, \delete, \Flagged, etc., respectively indicating that the mail status changes from seen to unseen, from unseen to It is seen, the mail is marked as delete, the mail is marked as flagged (indicating that the mail is important), etc.

For example: the status of the mail with the ID of 43 in the unselected mail folder B changes from \unseen to \seen and is marked as \Flagged, and the status response carrying the status change event of the mail is:

S: *STATUS FolderB(UID 43FLAGS(\seen\Flagged))

However, the existing acquisition response carries information about the selected mail folder, so the name information of the mail folder is not included. In order to make the acquisition response carry the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, the present invention adds mail folder name information in the acquisition response to indicate the mail folder where the mail state change event occurs. The format of the expanded acquisition response is:

FETCH FolderName(message data)

Wherein, the mail folder name (FolderName) may be mandatory or optional. If it is mandatory, the corresponding fetch command (FETCH Command) also has FolderName; if it is optional, if there is no FolderName, it defaults to the currently selected mail folder. In addition, when the state change event of the mail in the unselected mail folder is sent by obtaining the response, the UID and FLAGS data items are included in the message data (messagedata).

For example: the mail with UID 43 in the unselected mail folder B changes from \unseen to \seen and is marked as \Flagged, and the response to get the state change event of this mail is:

S: *FETCH FolderB(UID 43FLAGS(\seen\Flagged))

And the mail with UID 23 in mail folder A is marked as deleted, and when FolderName is a mandatory option, the response to obtain the state change event of the mail is as follows:

S: *FETCH FolderA(UID 23FLAGS(\deleted))

When FolderName is optional, the response to get the email status change event is:

S: *FETCH(UID 23FLAGS(\deleted))

The method of the present invention is applied in the IMAP protocol, and the process of realizing the synchronization of the mobile mail client and the server is as shown in Figure 3, wherein, when the mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server and performs mail processing, the following steps are included:

Step 301, the mobile mail client sends an idle command (A005 IDLE) to the mail server, indicating that the mobile mail client can receive an unsolicited response (unsolicited response) in the future. The commands involved in this step and subsequent steps 306 and 307 are all standard commands in the IMAP protocol, and will not be described in detail here.

Step 302, the notification generation module in the mail server detects the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, and after detecting the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, generates a corresponding active response, which carries the mail folder The name, the UID of the mail, and the event that occurs, that is, the current state of the mail, are sent to the notification sending module.

Step 303, the notification sending module sends an active response carrying the event to the mobile mail client.

Step 304: After receiving the active response, the notification parsing module of the mobile email client parses out the response type, locates the specified email, and performs state synchronization.

As shown in Figure 4, when the active response is a status response, step 304 specifically includes: in step 401, after the notification parsing module of the mobile mail client receives the status response, it is judged that it is not the status of the mail in the currently operating mail folder change event; then in step 402, locate the corresponding mail in the mail repository according to the mail folder name and the UID of the mail; then in step 403, update the status of the corresponding mail according to the mail status data item carried in the status response.

When the active response is an acquisition response, if the mail folder name in the acquisition response is optional, then as shown in Figure 5, step 304 specifically includes: in step 501, after the notification analysis module of the mobile mail client receives the acquisition response, it determines Whether to include the name of the mail folder, if it is judged that the name of the mail folder is not included, it is determined that the acquisition response carries the mail-related event in the selected mail folder, and the existing processing flow is executed; if it is judged that the name of the mail folder is included, then in Step 502, locate the corresponding mail in the mail storage according to the mail folder name and mail UID, and then in step 503, update the status of the corresponding mail according to the mail status data item carried in the acquisition response.

If the email folder name in the response is required, the notification parsing module of the mobile email client will locate the corresponding email in the email repository directly according to the email folder name and email UID after receiving the response, and then according to the information carried in the response The mail status data item of the update corresponding mail status.

In addition, in the processes of Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, when the notification analysis module locates the mail in the mail store according to the mail folder name and mail UID in the status response or the acquisition response, if there is no corresponding mail folder in the mail store, Then the response can be discarded according to the user settings, or a corresponding mail folder can be created and the mail can be downloaded; if the corresponding mail does not exist in the mail store, the response can be discarded according to the user settings, or the mail can be downloaded.

Step 305, the notification detection module in the mail server detects other events, and pushes the occurred event to the mobile mail client through active response after detecting the event.

Here, if the mail server also detects other events in addition to the mail state change event in step 302, such as other unselected mail folders or mail state change events in selected mail folders, or unselected mail folders or selected mail folders Select new mail events in the mail folder, etc., to generate corresponding active responses, and push the events to the mobile mail client. There is no certain order relationship between this step and the above steps 302 to 304. In the specific implementation process, this step may be executed first and then step 302, step 303 or step 304, or step 302 or step 303 or step 304 may be executed first , and then perform this step.

Step 306, the mobile mail client sends a DONE command to the mail server to end the idle (IDLE) state.

Step 307, after receiving the DONE command, the mail server replies with an IDLE response (A005OKIDLE teminated), after which the mail server no longer sends an active response to the mobile mail client.

Let’s use a specific example to illustrate the above process, assuming that the user mail folders stored in the mail server mail repository include: mail folder A, mail folder B, mail folder C..., where mail folder B has been synchronized since the last time The events that occurred are: the status of the email with UID 41 changed from \seen to \unseen, for example, some users will reset the unprocessed email to the \unseen status to remind themselves that the email still needs to be processed; the email with UID 43 The status of the message changes from \unseen to \seen and is marked as \Flagged; the message with UID 56 is marked as \delete.

In this example, as shown in Figure 6, the user establishes a connection with the mail server through the mobile mail client and selects mail folder A for operation, and after the mobile mail client sends the A005IDLE command to the mail server, the mail server will send mail folder B to Notify the mobile email client of the email status change event, by sending the following status response to the mobile email client:

S: *STATUS FolderB(UID 41FLAGS(\unseen))

S: *STATUS FolderB(UID 43FLAGS(\seen\Flagged))

S: *STATUS FolderB(UID 56FLAGS(\delete))

Of course, the functions of the above three status responses can also be realized through a status response, then the status response is:

S: *STATUS FolderB((UID 41 FLAGS(\unseen)), (UID 43 FLAGS(\seen\Flagged)), (UID 56 FLAGS(\delete)))

Thereafter, after receiving the above status response, the mobile mail client sets the mails with UIDs 41, 43, and 56 in the local mail folder B to the corresponding status according to the information carried in the status response.

Assume again that the above-mentioned mobile mail client is accessing the mail in mail folder A. At this time, another client reads the mail with UID 36 in mail folder C and makes its status change to \seen, then the mail server will send the The event is pushed to the above mobile email client through the following status response:

S: *STATUS FolderC(UID 36 FLAGS(\Seen))

After receiving the status response, the mobile mail client locates the mail with UID 36 in mail folder C in the mail storage according to the mail folder name and UID, and sets the status of the mail as \seen.

Thereafter, the mobile mail client sends a DONE command to the mail server, and the mail server replies with an A005OK IDLE terminated command to end the process.

The above is the description of the specific embodiments of the present invention, and the method of the present invention can be appropriately improved during the specific implementation process to meet the specific needs of specific situations. Therefore, it can be understood that the specific implementation manners according to the present invention are only exemplary, and are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A method for notifying mobile mail status, characterized in that the method comprises: The mobile mail client establishes a connection with the mail server, and after the mail server detects the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, it generates a notification including the mail state change event, and sends the notification to the mobile mail client. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises: After receiving the notification, the mobile email client updates the state of the corresponding email in itself according to the event in the notification. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the notification includes: mail folder name, mail identifier and mail status. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the notification is a status response. 5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the notification is an acquisition response. 6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the notification includes one or more mail status change events in the same mail folder, and the mail identifier and mail status include one or more groups correspondingly. 7. The method according to claim 3, wherein the updating of the status of the corresponding mail in the mobile mail client according to the event in the notification comprises: The mobile mail client locates the mail stored in itself according to the mail folder name and mail identifier in the notification, and updates the status of the mail to the mail status included in the notification. 8. A system for notifying mobile mail status, characterized in that the system includes: mail server and mobile mail client; The mail server is used to establish a connection with the mail client, and detect the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, generate a notification including the detected mail state change event, and send the notification to the mobile mail client; The mobile mail client is used to establish a connection with the mail server, receive a notification from the mail server including the change event of the mail in the unselected mail folder, or further update the state of the corresponding mail in itself according to the event in the notification. 9. A mail server, characterized in that, the mail server includes: a mail repository, a notification generating module and a notification sending module; The mail repository is used to store user mail; The notification generation module is used to detect the mail state change event in the unselected mail folder, generate a notification including the detected mail state change event, and send the notification to the notification sending module; The notification sending module is used for sending the notification from the notification generating module to the mobile mail client. 10. A mobile mail client, characterized in that the mobile mail client includes: a notification parsing module and a mail repository; The notification parsing module is used to receive the notification from the mail server including the status change event of the mail in the unselected mail folder, and update the status of the corresponding mail in the mail repository according to the notification; Mail stores are used to store users' mail.

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