System and method for blended presentation of locally and remotely stored electronic messages

• US 10,255,587 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2012
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mahood, Justin B., Novitskey, Robert R., Alagesan, Shri Vidhya, Gregg, Ryan E., Krishnaswamy, Somanath, Wiedemann, Bruce D., Kumar, Saurabh, Meisels, Joshua A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Klicos, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US13/352,999
• Publication Number:
  US 20130185649A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,638 Days
• Field of Search: 715752, 709206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

An electronic messaging client caches copies of a subset of electronic messages available in a remote store in a local store of a user device. When the user device is in an online state, the client provides for the blended presentation of electronic messages such that a user can concurrently view information about the electronic messages that have been cached in the local store as well as information about electronic messages that are stored only in the remote store. The client also presents a blended state associated with a container of electronic messages to a user of a user device and enables a user to execute a search of cached electronic messages stored in a local store as well as of electronic messages stored in the remote store.

Claims

1. A method performed by an electronic messaging client installed on a user device, comprising:

displaying information and content corresponding to one or more first electronic messages in a graphical user interface rendered on a display of the user device, wherein the one or more first electronic messages have time information that corresponds to a user-configurable time frame having a specified start time and end time associated with a synchronization window, the synchronization window configured to shift forward in time after a predetermined amount of time has passed, and wherein the information and content of the one or more first electronic messages is stored in a local, nonvolatile storage device of the user device;

displaying an indication of one or more second electronic messages that are different than the one or more first electronic messages, the one or more second electronic messages being stored on a remote store associated with the electronic messaging server and not stored in the local, nonvolatile storage device of the user device, wherein the one or more second electronic messages have time information that falls outside the time frame associated with the synchronization window;

receiving a first user interaction with the indication of the one or more second electronic messages;

in response to receiving the first user interaction with the indication of the one more second electronic messages, retrieving information and content corresponding to the one or more second electronic messages;

temporarily storing the information and content corresponding to the one or more second electronic messages in a buffer of the user device, the buffer being separate from the local, nonvolatile storage device; and

displaying the information and content corresponding to the one or more second electronic messages in the graphical user interface concurrently with the information and content corresponding to the one or more first electronic messages in the graphical user interface, wherein the one or more second electronic messages are removed from the buffer when the electronic messaging client is closed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a component within the graphical user interface that causes the information and content corresponding to the one or more second electronic messages to be displayed in the graphical user interface concurrently with the information and content corresponding to the one or more first electronic messages.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a component within the graphical user interface that causes the content of a selected one of the one or more first electronic messages to be displayed in the graphical user interface;

receiving a second user interaction with the component; and

in response to receiving the second user interaction with the component, obtaining the content of the selected one of the one or more first electronic messages from the local store for display in the graphical user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a component within the graphical user interface that causes the content of a selected one of the one or more second electronic messages to be displayed in the graphical user interface;

determining that the component has been interacted with; and

in response to the determining that the component has been interacted with;

obtaining the content of the selected one of the one or more second electronic messages from the remote store for display in the graphical user interface; and

temporarily buffering the content of the selected one of the one or more second electronic messages in the buffer of the user device without saving a copy of the contents of the selected one of the one or more second electronic messages in the local, nonvolatile storage device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a component for changing the time frame of the synchronization window.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first electronic messages and the one or more second electronic messages comprise e-mail messages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a first user interaction with the indication of the one or more second electronic messages comprises receiving a selection of the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages.

8. A method performed by an electronic messaging client installed on a user device, comprising:

receiving a query, containing one or more terms, on the user device;

executing a first search against a first plurality of electronic messages cached in a local store of the user device using the one or more terms of the query, the local store comprising nonvolatile storage, wherein the plurality of electronic messages cached in the local store have time information that falls within a user-configurable time frame having a specified start time and end time and associated with a rolling time-based synchronization window configured to the shift forward in time after a predetermined amount of time has passed;

displaying information about at least one electronic message identified as a result of the execution of the first search in a graphical user interface rendered on a display of the user device;

displaying an indication of a second plurality of electronic messages available in a remote store but not in the local store, the second plurality of electronic messages being different than the first plurality of electronic messages, wherein the plurality of electronic messages available in the remote store have time information that falls outside the time frame associated with the synchronization window;

receiving a first user interaction with the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages;

executing a second search, using the one or more terms of the query, against the second plurality of electronic messages; and

displaying information about at least one electronic message identified as a result of the execution of the second search in the graphical user interface, the information about the at least one electronic message identified as a result of the execution of the second search being temporarily buffered in a memory of the user device that is separate from the local store, wherein the one or more second electronic messages are removed from the buffer when the electronic messaging client is closed.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second search is executed in response to received input.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

concurrently displaying information about a first electronic message that is cached in the local store and information about a second electronic message that is not cached in the local store in the graphical user interface as a result of the execution of the second search;

in response to user interaction with a first component of the graphical user interface, obtaining the contents of the first electronic message from the local store for display in the graphical user interface; and

in response to user interaction with a second component of the graphical user interface, accessing the contents of the second electronic message from the remote store for display in the graphical user interface and temporarily buffering the contents of the second electronic message in the memory of the user device without saving a copy of the contents of the second electronic message in the local store.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages indicates that the results of the first search may be incomplete.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of electronic messages comprise e-mail messages.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising downloading the at least one electronic message in its entirety as a result of executing the second search.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving a first user interaction with the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages comprises receiving a selection of the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages.

16. The system of claim 8, further comprising instructions for downloading the at least one electronic message identified as a result of the execution of the second search in its entirety.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the second search is executed in response to received input.

18. The system of claim 8, wherein the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages indicates that the results of the first search may be incomplete.

19. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of electronic messages comprise e-mail messages.

15. A system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method, comprising;

receiving a query containing one or more terms;

executing a first search against a first plurality of electronic messages cached in a local store using the one or more terms of the query, wherein the local store comprises nonvolatile storage and wherein the plurality of electronic messages cached in the local store have time information that falls within a user-configurable time frame having a specified start time and end time and associated with a rolling time-based synchronization window, the rolling time-based synchronization window configured to shift forward in time after a predetermined amount of time has passed;

displaying, in a graphical user interface, information about at least one electronic message identified as a result of the execution of the first search;

displaying an indication of a second plurality of electronic messages available in a remote store but not in the local store, wherein the second plurality of electronic messages are different from the first plurality of electronic messages and have time information that falls outside the time frame specified by the synchronization window;

receiving a first interaction with the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages;

executing a second search, using the one or more terms of the query, against the second plurality of electronic messages; and

displaying information about at least one electronic message identified as a result of the execution of the second search in the graphical user interface, wherein the information about the at least one electronic message identified as a result of the execution of the second search is temporarily buffered in a memory that is separate from the local store, wherein the one or more second electronic messages are removed from the buffer when the electronic messaging client is closed.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein receiving a first interaction with the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages comprises receiving a selection of the indication of the second plurality of electronic messages.