A System for Managing Structured Messages

Message systems send and receive messages but do not manage the information the messages contain. Database management systems manage the information of a global database but do not have a notion of address. In this paper the authors outline a prototype system which integrates the facilities of message systems and database management systems. The system manages structured messages according to their contents. The messages can be stored within a station and transferred between stations. Information present in the messages can be queried in a distributed manner. Message structure can also be exploited by automatic procedures which recognize triggering conditions and perform user specified actions.