Generating relational structure for non-relational messages

Abstract

A messaging server (112) provides a message store (116) for storing messages in a relational manner. A set of related messages, such as an email string between two or more people, is represented as a message container (200) having relational references to one or more submessages (210, 212, 214). The messaging server (112) processes non-relational messages sent by the server by inserting (516) tags that uniquely identify components within the message. The messaging server (112) also processes tagged or untagged non-relational messages received by the server to create (616, 618) relational counterparts in the message store (116). Relational searches can be executed on the messages in the message store (116) to perform audits or forensic analyses of the messages.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.