System and method for providing notification(s)

• US 20040002958A1
• Filed: 06/26/2002
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Curley, Vincent H., Knight, Holly, Pather, Shyamalan, Seshadri, Praveen, Dievendorff, Richard, Blanch, Robert F., Garrett, Phil
• Application Number:
  US10/180,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20040002958A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The present invention relates to a notification system architecture for hosting subscription applications. The architecture models applications as set oriented data concept to achieve matching efficiency and employs a transactional database as a queue to provide reliable services. Additionally, the architecture consists of distinct components such as an event provider, notification engine, and distributor that are able to be coupled/decoupled and replicated as necessary to enable system scalability.

Claims

1. A notification system comprising:

a database engine that processes received events and subscription information, the database engine modeling the events and subscriptions as data prior to processing so as to facilitate event and subscription processing; and

a notification server that delivers notifications to subscribers in accordance with the processed events and subscription information.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an event provider that obtains the event and subscription information.

3. The system of claim 1, the subscription information being queries, the database engine modeling the queries as data.

4. The system of claim 3, the modeled event and subscription information being propagated within respective databases, and the database engine processing the event and subscription information via performing a join function on at least a subset of the databases.

5. The system of claim 1, the database engine employing a SQL database application.

6. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components for implementing the system of claim 1.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a delivery service that formats the notifications prior to delivery.

8. The system of claim 7, the formatting comprising designating a markup language coincident with a browser of a receiving device.

9. The system of claim 7, the formatting comprising compressing the notifications pursuant to capabilities of a receiving device.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a context analyzer that determines when and if the notification should be delivered.

11. The system of claim 10, the content analyzer determining a mode of delivery of the notification.

12. The system of claim 10, the content analyzer employing a decision-theoretic analysis.

13. The system of claim 1 further comprising an event provider that facilitates delivery of events to the system.

14. The system of claim 13, the event provider searching for event information.

15. The system of claim 13, the event provider being pushed event information.

16. The system of claim 1 residing on one or more servers.

17. The system of claim 1 further comprising a subscription management system that provides a hosting environment for user interfaces for collecting subscriber and subscription data.

18. The system of claim 1 further comprising an event database that stores the event information.

19. The system of claim 1 further comprising a chronicle database that stores historical event and notification data.

20. The system of claim 19, the chronicle database mitigating redundant notifications.

21. A notification system comprising:

means for obtaining events and subscription information;

means for abstracting the events and subscriptions information as data;

means for generating notification data from the events and subscriptions data; and

means for delivering notifications to subscribers in accordance with the generated notification data.

22. The system of claim 21, the notification data comprising a plurality of data fields.

23. The system of claim 22, the notification data fields being stored in a notification table that is propagated with notification specific information.

24. A notification methodology, comprising:

abstracting specific subscription and event information as data;

storing the subscription and event data in respective tables, the tables being propagated with the specific subscription and event information; and

upon a notification event occurring, performing a join operation of the subscription and event data to generate notification data.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising employing match rules as part of the join operation.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising determining that a notification is to be delivered.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising formatting the notification prior to delivery.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising inferring a preferred mode of delivery of the notification.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising employing a classifier.

30. The method of claim 29, the classifier being employed in connection with determining a priority of a notification.

31. The method of claim 29, the classifier comprising at least one of:

Bayesian networks, decision trees, and probabilistic classification models.

32. A notification service system comprising:

a central database that stores subscriber data in XML format;

an application specific database that stores subscription data in XML format;

an event provider that collects event information;

a notification engine that accesses the databases and joins subsets of data from the databases with the event information to generate notifications.

33. The system of claim 32, the notification engine propagating the databases with data.

34. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a first set of data fields containing data representing subscription information;

a second set of data fields containing data representing subscriber information;

a third set of data fields containing data representing event information; and

a fourth set of data fields containing notification data derived from performing a join operation on the first, second and third sets of data fields.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 34 further storing a computer executable component for performing the join operation.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 36 further storing match rules to facilitate the join operation.

37. A notification system comprising:

a notification engine that performs a join operation on a plurality of databases to generate a notification database, the plurality of databases comprising;

a subscriber database that stores information relating to subscribers of a plurality of respective notification services.

a subscription database that stores information relating to a plurality of respective subscription queries; and

a notification distributor that delivers notifications generated by the notification engine to the subscribers.

38. The notification system of claim 37 further comprising an event database that stores event information.

39. The notification system of claim 37 further comprising an inference engine that infers preferred modes of notification delivery.

40. The system of claim 39, the inference engine factoring cost of disruption versus utility of notification.

41. The system of claim 37 further comprising a rules database that stores match rules that facilitate performing the join operation.