Information sharing groups, server and client group applications, and methods therefor

• US 20030236823A1
• Filed: 06/19/2002
• Published: 12/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hu, Bin, Patzer, Robert, Latypov, Dmitri
• Application Number:
  US10/174,615
• Publication Number:
  US 20030236823A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

Methods for creating (310) information-sharing groups on communications servers, and automatically deleting (320) the information-sharing groups after a specified group validity time interval expires (340) by associating an auto-delete property (330) with the information-sharing group. The group is preferably deleted only if there is no active group session (350). The auto-delete property and any validity time period property are specified in a group property primitive generated by a group application, running for example on a client, which transmits the primitive to the server.

Claims

1. A method in a communications server, comprising:

establishing an information-sharing group on the communications server;

automatically deleting the information-sharing group from the communications server upon expiration of a specified time period associated with the information-sharing group.

2. The method of claim 1,

receiving an information-sharing group property primitive from a client, the information-sharing group property primitive including information-sharing group auto-delete information and information-sharing group validity time period information,

the information-sharing group auto-delete information specifying that the information-sharing group be deleted automatically, the information-sharing group validity time period information specifying how long the information-sharing group exists before being deleted automatically.

3. The method of claim 1, specifying the time period associated with the information-sharing group by specifying a group validity time period, automatically deleting the information-sharing group upon expiration of the group validity time period.

4. The method of claim 3, automatically deleting the information-sharing group upon expiration of the group validity time period only when the there are no group members actively participating in the information-sharing group.

5. The method of claim 3, specifying the group validity time period as a validity property of the information-sharing group upon creating the information-sharing group.

6. The method of claim 1, setting an auto-delete property of the information-sharing group, automatically deleting the information-sharing group from the communications server upon expiration of the specified time period associated with the information-sharing group only if the auto-delete property of the information-sharing group is set.

7. The method of claim 1, associating the specified time period with the information-sharing group by specifying the specified time period as a property of the information-sharing group.

8. The method of claim 1, receiving, at the communications server, an instruction from a client for automatically deleting the information-sharing group after the specified time period.

9. The method of claim 8, receiving, at the communications server, an instruction from the client specifying the time period during which the information-sharing group exists before automatically deleting the information-sharing group.

10. A group configuration file associated with an information-sharing group in a communications server, comprising:

an information-sharing group auto-delete data field,

the information-sharing group auto-delete data field for storing auto-delete information specifying whether the information-sharing group with which the group configuration file is associated will be deleted automatically from the communications server after a specified time period.

11. The group configuration file of claim 10,

a group validity time period data field,

the group validity time period data field storing group validity time period information specifying a time period during which the information-sharing group with which the group configuration file is associated exists before being automatically deleted.

12. An application generated information-sharing group property primitive, comprising:

a group identification;

an information-sharing group auto-delete data segment;

an information-sharing group validity time period data segment,

the information-sharing group auto-delete data segment specifying that an information-sharing group identified by the group identification be deleted after a specified time period.

13. The application generated information-sharing group property primitive of claim 12, a validity time period data segment specifying a time period during which the information-sharing group identified by the group identification exists before being deleted automatically.

14. The application generated information-sharing group property primitive of claim 12 is a client application generated information-sharing group property primitive.

15. The application generated information-sharing group property primitive of claim 12 is a mobile wireless communications device client application generated information-sharing group property primitive.

16. The application generated information-sharing group property primitive of claim 12, comprises a protocol identification data segment, a transaction type data segment, a session identification data segment.

17. A method in an information-sharing group server, comprising:

specifying whether an information-sharing group hosted by the server is to be deleted automatically at a future time;

specifying an information-sharing group validity time period during which the information sharing group exists before being deleted automatically.

18. The method of claim 17, specifying the information sharing group validity time period by using default information-sharing group validity time period information.

19. The method of claim 17, specifying a time period during which the information sharing-group exists before being deleted automatically by receiving at the server, from a client, an information-sharing group property primitive including an information-sharing group auto-delete data segment and an information sharing group validity time period data segment.

20. The method of claim 17, receiving at the server an information sharing group property primitive from a client, the information sharing group property primitive including an information sharing group auto-delete instruction specifying whether the information sharing group hosted by the server is to be deleted automatically.

21. The method of claim 17, receiving at the server an information-sharing group property primitive from a client, the information sharing group property primitive including an information sharing group auto-delete instruction specifying whether the information-sharing group hosted by the server is to be deleted automatically, the information-sharing group property primitive including an information-sharing group validity instruction specifying the information-sharing group validity time period.

22. A method in a group application on a wireless communication client, comprising:

specifying whether an information-sharing group hosted on a server is to be deleted automatically at a future time;

specifying an information-sharing group validity time period during which the information-sharing group exists before being deleted automatically.

23. The method of claim 22, specifying a time period during which the information-sharing group exists before being deleted automatically by transmitting an information-sharing group property primitive including an information-sharing group auto-delete data segment and an information-sharing group validity time period data segment.

24. The method of claim 22, transmitting the information-sharing group property primitive including an information sharing group auto-delete data segment and an information-sharing group validity time period data segment to the server on which the information-sharing group is hosted.