Extensibility features for electronic communications

• US 10,241,657 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2016
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Byrne, Warren Randall, Mahood, Justin Bradley, Gregg, Ryan Edward, Henderson, Jason Todd, Salamatov, Andrew, Claux, David, Ouliankine, Oleg
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Robinson, Marshon L
• Application Number:
  US15/383,226
• Publication Number:
  US 20170097754A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/60 Business processes related to postal services shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

An extensibility model is used to provide active and interactive functionality in communication items, but the embodiments are not so limited. A computer system of an embodiment includes components configured to identify one or more activation triggers that operate to activate gadget code using an isolated code execution environment as part of injecting content into an email communication. A method of one embodiment provides an extensibility framework for using defined gadget triggers and associated gadget functionality as part of automatically injecting content inline with a mail message.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

parsing a source communication to produce a parsed output;

using triggering criteria as part of identifying an extension trigger in the parsed output of the source communication, including using one or more regular expressions as the triggering criteria to trigger an injection of active content inline with the source communication; and

implementing an extension with an electronic communication client as part of interacting with the source communication by;

unpacking a solution package associated with the extension, the solution package comprising extension code associated with the extension and the extension trigger that triggers execution of the extension code; and

executing the extension code after using the one or more regular expressions to identify the extension trigger for the extension as part of providing active content features for the source communication separate from the electronic communication client, wherein executing the extension code embeds the active content in the source communication.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the source communication without the extension when the extension trigger is not identified in the parsed output.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an interaction via a user interface to identify at least one extension trigger declared for one or more extensions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the extension includes third party code and communicates with another resource to populate an identified portion of the source communication with the active content according to parsed content that triggers the extension trigger.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the electronic communication client comprises an email application;

the source communication comprises an email message; and

the method further comprises providing the solution package that includes the extension code and a manifest that includes the extension trigger, wherein the solution package is stored with a hidden email message in a user mailbox.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising storing the solution package as part of one or more of remote and local computer storage.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising executing the email application locally as part of using the solution package with the email message.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the email application comprises a web-based email application and the method further comprises executing the web-based email application as part of using the solution package with the email message.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the solution package using one or more of markup language, style sheet language, or scripting language features.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the extension code based in part on the parsing of the source communication, locating a body tag, and injecting the extension code in relation to the body tag.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an extensibility model as part of providing inline content for the source communication that includes injecting a markup stream into a viewable portion of the source communication automatically upon identifying the extension trigger in a parsed portion of the source communication.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein executing the extension code comprises executing the extension code in an isolation sandbox.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising running the extension code in isolation based on the extension trigger as part of injecting different types of content inline.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inspecting the source communication to determine if the triggering criteria are met;

unpacking a compressed package from a hidden message that contains the solution package when the triggering criteria are met;

loading the execution code in an isolation sandbox; and

returning a markup language stream for display with the source communication.

15. A system comprising:

processor and memory resources;

an email client;

one or more available gadgets that provide extended email functionality for the email client and are configured according to one or more solution packages, wherein a gadget operates by;

unpacking a solution package associated with the gadget, the solution package comprising execution code associated with the gadget and at least one activation trigger that causes execution of the execution code; and

executing the extension code associated with the gadget;

a parsing engine configured in part to parse a selected email message and identify one or more activation triggers, wherein each identified activation trigger comprises a regular expression as triggering criteria to trigger an injection of active content inline which causes execution of an associated extension code; and

an interface to display the selected email message and any associated extension functionality provided by an activated gadget.

16. The system of claim 15, the interface further comprising an email application interface that displays extension features based in part on the use of isolated extension code to return a markup stream as part of displaying the active content inline with the selected email message.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each gadget includes a corresponding solution package that is based in part on a manifest file, one or more embedded resources, and associated extension code, wherein the manifest file includes the at least one activation trigger to cause the execution code to execute and embed the active content in the selected email message.

18. The system of claim 15, the interface configured to receive user input as part of interaction with the selected email message before use of the parsing engine to identify the one or more activation triggers.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein each gadget can include third party code and communicate with other resources to populate an identified portion of the selected email message with the active content according to parsed content that triggers an associated activation trigger.

20. A computer storage device, including instructions which, when executed, comprise:

examining a selected electronic communication item to identify one or more gadget triggers, including parsing portions of the selected electronic communication item to provide parsed portions and using a manifest to identify the one or more gadget triggers in at least one parsed portion, wherein the examining further including using one or more regular expressions as triggering criteria to trigger an injection of active content inline with the selected electronic communication item;

receiving an interaction via a user interface to identify an activation trigger declared for a gadget that includes third party code and communicates with another resource to populate an identified portion of the selected electronic communication item with the active content according to parsed content that triggers the associated activation trigger; and

implementing a gadget with an email client by;

unpacking a solution package associated with the gadget, the solution package comprising extension code associated with the gadget and the manifest that includes one or more gadget triggers that trigger execution of the gadget code; and

executing the extension code separate from the email client upon identifying the one or more gadget triggers as part of providing active content features inline with the selected electronic communication item, wherein executing the extension code embeds the active content in the selected electronic communication item.