System and method for provisioning telephony services via a personal digital assistant

• US 20030023759A1
• Filed: 11/30/2000
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Syndeo Corp. (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Syndeo Corp. (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Inventors: Littleton, Jack, Unite, Danilo
• Application Number:
  US09/729,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20030023759A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/248
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication

Abstract

A system and related method are described for synchronizing information on a handheld computer with information on a database maintained by a server. The handheld computer includes a first application program to maintain a first database and a second application program to enable a user to access the first database and change records in the first database according to features selected by the user. The system also includes a synchronization program running on a host computer system to synchronize the first database on the handheld computer with a server database.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a handheld computer including a first application program to maintain a first database, and a second application program to enable a user to access said first database and change records in said first database according to features selected by the user; and

a host computer system including a synchronization program to provide a synchronization of information on said first database and information on a second database maintained by a server.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said synchronization program maintains a map file of checksum values to determine which records are new and which records have changed since previous synchronization.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said synchronization program is configured to update dirty flags maintained by said first application program to reflect changes made during synchronization between said handheld computer and said server.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said handheld computer is a personal digital assistant.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said first application program is a Personal Information Manager and said first database is an address book database.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said second application program is a telephone management application program to enable a user to select telephone service features for those contacts that appear in the address book database.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said telephone service features selectable by a user includes at least one of call waiting, call forwarding, call blocking, caller ID block, distinctive ring and anonymous call reject.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said host computer system further comprises a Personal Information Manager to maintain records in a second address book database.

9. A method comprising:

providing a first application program on a handheld computer to maintain a first database;

providing a second application program on a handheld computer to enable a user to access said first database and change records in said first database according to features selected by the user; and

using a host computer system to synchronize information on said handheld computer with information maintained by a server.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said using a host computer to synchronize information further comprises:

reading records of said first database from said handheld computer;

determining which records of said first database have been modified;

reading modified records of a second database maintained by a server;

updating records of said second database to reflect changes made to said modified records of said first database; and

updating records of said first database to reflect changes made to said modified records of said second database.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising maintaining a map file of checksum values, each checksum value corresponds to a respective record of said first database, said checksum values useful in determining which records are new and have changed.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising updating dirty flags maintained by said first application program to reflect changes made during synchronization between said handheld computer and said server.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein said handheld computer is a personal digital assistant.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein said first application program is a Personal Information Manager and said first database is an address book database.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein said second application program is a telephone management application program to enable a user to select telephone service features for those contacts that appear in the address book database.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said telephone service features selectable by a user includes at least one of call waiting, call forwarding, call blocking, caller ID block, distinctive ring and anonymous call reject.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein said host computer system further comprises a Personal Information Manager to maintain records in a second address book database.

18. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

reading records of a first database on a handheld computer;

determining which records of said first database have been changed;

reading records of a second database maintained by a server;

determining which records of said second database have been changed;

updating records of said second database to reflect changes made to records of said first database; and

updating records of said first database to reflect changes made to records of said second database.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein operations further comprise maintaining a first map file of checksum values, each checksum value of said first map file corresponds to a respective record of said first database, said checksum values are used in determining which records have changed.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein operations further comprise maintaining a second map file of checksum values, each checksum value of said second map file corresponds to a respective record of said second database, said checksum values are used in determining which records have changed.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein operations further comprise updating dirty flags maintained by said first application program to reflect changes made during synchronization between said handheld computer and said server.

22. A handheld computer comprising:

a first application to maintain a first database;

a second application to enable a user to access said first database and change a record in said first database according to features selected by the user; and

a wireless communications link with a server, wherein said hand held computer is configured to communicate information associated with said features selected by the user to said server over said wireless communications link.

23. The handheld computer of claim 22, wherein said first application is a Personal Information Manager and said first database is an address book database.

24. The handheld computer of claim 23, wherein said second application is a telephone management application to enable a user to select telephone service features for those contacts that appear in said address book database.

25. The handheld computer of claim 24, wherein said telephone service features selectable by the user includes at least one of call waiting, call forwarding, call blocking, caller ID block, distinctive ring and anonymous call reject.

26. The handheld computer of claim 22, wherein said handheld computer is a personal digital assistant.