Space-efficient mail storing and archiving based on communication structure

A mail server system in an electronic mail communication system communicating with a plurality of mail clients, for processing electronic mail messages having a message header and a message body, characterized by:

• a) a parser program component for splitting up the message body of an incoming e-mail message at one or more split locations by parsing the message body based on a regular grammar with a predetermined set of transduction rules, yielding a respective plurality of elementary mail segments, which stand at least pair wise in a parent-child relationship;
• b) a program component for computing a unique ID for each of said plurality of elementary mail segments, wherein said unique ID is used as an index for accessing a mail store table;
• and
• c) storage table means, comprising an access index in form of said unique ID for each elementary mail segment, wherein a table entry comprises an elementary mail segment together with a link to its particular parent elementary mail segment.

A computer program for execution in an electronic mail processing system in an electronic mail communication system comprising at least one mail server and a plurality of mail clients interconnected with a respective server, for processing electronic mail messages having a message header and a message body, characterized by a functional component for performing the steps of:

• a) splitting up the message body of an incoming e-mail message at one or more split locations by parsing the message body based on a regular grammar with a predetermined set of transduction rules, yielding a respective plurality of elementary mail segments, which stand at least pair wise in a parent-child relationship;
• b) computing a unique ID for each of said plurality of elementary mail segments, wherein said unique ID is used as an index for accessing a mail store table;
• c) looking up the computed unique ID of each elementary mail segment in said mail store table;
• d) in case the computed unique ID of an elementary mail segment does not exist in said mail store table, storing the respective elementary mail segment as a new entry in said mail store table together with a link to its particular parent elementary mail segment, thus defining one or more ordered sequences of inter-related elementary mail segments;
• and
• e) reconstructing an original e-mail from a concatenation of a respective sequence of said inter-related elementary mail segments for display purposes at a mail-receiving client, or for a restore procedure from a mail archive based on said mail store table.

A computer program product stored on a computer usable medium comprising computer readable program means for processing electronic mail messages having a message header and a message body, to be used in an electronic mail communication system comprising at least one mail server and a plurality of mail clients interconnected with a respective server, characterized by a functional component for performing the steps of:

• a) splitting up the message body of an incoming e-mail message at one or more split locations by parsing the message body based on a regular grammar with a predetermined set of transduction rules, yielding a respective plurality of elementary mail segments, which stand at least pair wise in a parent-child relationship;
• b) computing a unique ID for each elementary mail segment, wherein said ID is used as an index for accessing a mail store table;
• c) looking up the computed unique ID of each of said plurality of elementary mail segments in said mail store table;
• d) in case the computed ID of an elementary mail segment does not exist in said mail store table, storing the respective elementary mail segment as a new entry in said mail store table together with a link to its particular parent elementary mail segment, thus defining one or more ordered sequences of inter-related elementary mail segments;
• and
• e) reconstructing an original e-mail from a concatenation of a respective sequence of said inter-related elementary mail segments for display purposes at a mail-receiving client, or for a restore procedure from a mail archive based on said mail store table, when said computer program product is executed on a computer.