210 detects the new request it parses out the topic based on the address to which the message was sent and the request parameters from the subject it also determines the most appropriate output format based on the e mail application used to compose and send the message it then queues up a new request in the database 212 the composer 218 constantly polls the database 212 to detect any queued requests it connects to the topic server 226 and conveys the topic name parameters and output format the composer 218 takes any results returned from the topic server 226 and sends a message back to the user for example from flightstatus halibot com to user somewhere net subject re united 2507 flight information last updated less than 1 minute ago united airlines 2507 departing san francisco intl ca 5 38pm in flight 329 mi sw of chicago il 33000 u2032 475 mph b744 arriving newark intl nj 1 11am 0025 fig3 a represents a composer main loop 300 a process 302 selects queued requests from the database in each iteration of the main loop the composer 116 and 218 examines a u201c mail_queue u201d database table to see if there are any requests that need to be processed a u201c fresh u201d request is identified when a u201c being_processed_by u201d column is null a u201c began_processing u201d column is null and a u201c completed u201d column is null all requests that conform to these criteria are selected by an sql statement such sorts first by priority and then by the time at which the request was.