The Design And Implementation Of A Multi-function Email Receiving Agent Platform

This paper introduces the design and implementation of a Multi-function Email Receiving Agent Platform (MERAP).First of all, we analyze the disadvantages of the current PDA devices in handling mails. And in consideration of the various requirements in mail service, we make clear the destination of our task and formulate a feasible plan. Then we introduce the general structure of MERAP and determine our final schema after comparing several candidates.Second, we describe in detail the implementation of the principal part of MERAP and every functional module, discuss the rules for calling functional agents, and contrast this system's performance with that of the parallel ones in structure, services and extensibility.Then we illustrate the implementation of two functional agents, the authentication agent and the mail-handling agent, and demonstrate the communication between the principal part and the modules.In the last part of this paper, we evaluate the performance of the agency platform and make a prospect for future expedition in this field. The MERAP is so useful that the PDA users can benefit quite a lot from it in receiving emails. This design, which turns every functional module^into an agent and transforms the system structure into a platform, guarantees the independency of each agent, the flexibility of the platform and the extensibility of the service.Furthermore, I believe the discussion about the technologies, which we have employed to implement the MERAP, must be helpful to those developers who are exploring in this field.