Patent attributes
A custom email handler comprises network interface circuitry and in-line email processing circuitry. The network interface circuitry uses the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) to receive an email message that has already visited a sender's mail transfer agent (MTA). The in-line email processing circuitry searches a subject header field and/or a message body of the email message for a character string matching any of a predefined set of custom email processing commands. In response to one of the predefined set of custom email processing commands being found during the searching, the in-line email processing circuitry modifies the message body in accordance with one or more rules associated with the found command, and removes the found command from the subject header field and/or the message body. After the modifying and the removing, the email is sent, via the networking interface circuitry, into a network destined for a recipient's mail transfer agent.
