Clientless electronic mail MIME attachment re-delivery system via the web to reduce network bandwidth usage

• US 20030055907A1
• Filed: 09/18/2002
• Published: 03/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: MobiTV Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MobiTV Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Stiers, Todd
• Application Number:
  US10/245,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20030055907A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A method to reduce the network capacity usage of electronic email containing MIME-encoded attachments. A proxy server located between the email client and the source email server separates the MIME parts of the message, removes one or more MIME attachments, then inserts links corresponding to the one or more MIME attachments into the email message. The proxy server transmits the email message to the client using a 7-bit text format. The end user may click on a link corresponding to a MIME attachment to access the attachment. The attachment is transmitted to the client using a non-7-bit format. The proxy server can act as a protocol proxy, retrieving and transmitting messages in real time, or it can retrieve, transform, and cache messages before clients request them.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an email message having one or more MIME attachments;

removing the MIME attachments from the email message;

inserting one or more links corresponding to the one or more MIME attachments into the email message; and

transmitting the email message containing the one or more links to a client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting one of the one or more attachments to the client in response to the client selecting the corresponding one of the one or more links.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising converting the one of the one or more attachments to a non-7-bit-text format prior to transmitting the one of the one or more attachments to the client.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising storing the attachments in a cache in a proxy server and retrieving the attachments from the cache prior to transmitting the one or more attachments to the client.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to the client selecting one of the one or more links, retrieving the email message from an email source, removing from the email message the one of the one or more attachments corresponding to the selected link, and converting the one of the one or more attachments corresponding to the selected link to a non-7-bit-text format prior to transmitting the one of the one or more attachments to the client.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the email message containing the one or more links is transmitted to the client by a proxy server and the one of the one or more attachments is transmitted to the client by a Web server which is separate from the proxy server.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising retrieving a user profile corresponding to the client and retrieving the one of the one or more attachments based upon the user profile.

8. The method of claim 1, The method of claim 1, wherein the email message containing the one or more links is transmitted to the client using a 7-bit text format.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a key for each of the attachments removed from the email message and incorporating each key in the link to the corresponding attachment.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the key includes a user identifier, a message identifier, and an attachment identifier.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the key also includes an email source identifier.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising encrypting the keys.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the links comprise Web URLs.

14. A system comprising:

a proxy server,

wherein the proxy server is configured to receive an email message from a mail server, wherein the email message has one or more MIME attachments, and

wherein the proxy server is configured to remove the one or more attachments from the email message and to insert one or more links corresponding to the one or more attachments into the email message, and to transmit the modified email message to a client.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the proxy server is configured to provide one of the one or more attachments in response to the client selecting a corresponding one of the one or more links.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein, in response to the client selecting the one of the one or more links, the proxy server is configured to retrieve the original email message from a mail server, extract the corresponding one of the one or more attachments from the original email message, and transmit the extracted attachment to the client.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a Web server which is separate from the proxy server, wherein the proxy server is configured to transmit the email message containing the one or more links to the client and the Web server is configured to transmit the one of the one or more attachments to the client.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising a cache, wherein the proxy server is configured to store the attachments in the cache and wherein, in response to the client selecting the one of the one or more links, the proxy server is configured to retrieve the corresponding one of the one or more attachments from the cache, and transmit the retrieved attachment to the client.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the proxy server is configured to transmit the extracted attachment is over a non-seven-bit protocol.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising a memory configured to store one or more user profiles, wherein the proxy server is configured to retrieve a user profile corresponding to the client and to retrieve the one of the one or more attachments based upon the retrieved user profile.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the proxy server is configured to transmit the email message containing the one or more links to the client in a 7-bit text format.

22. The system of claim 14, wherein the proxy server is configured to generate a key for each of the attachments removed from the email message and to incorporate each key in the link to the corresponding attachment.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein each key includes a user identifier, a message identifier, and an attachment identifier.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein each key further includes an email source identifier.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the proxy server is configured to encrypt each key.

26. The system of claim 14, wherein the links comprise Web URLs.