Rapidly obtaining a subset of message data from a server for filtering
First Claim
15. In a computing device, a method comprising:
- retrieving a list of message identifiers from a server;
for each message identifier, determining whether the message identifier corresponds to a message that meets filtering criteria, does not meet the filtering criteria or is unknown with respect to the filtering criteria; and
for each message that is unknown with respect to the filtering criteria, downloading message data from the server, evaluating the message data to determine whether the message meets or does not meet the filtering criteria, and persisting data indicative of whether the message met or did not meet the filtering criteria.
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Abstract
Described is a system and method in which client-side tracking mechanisms allow a computing device to efficiently decide which messages need to be downloaded from a server for subsequent filtering evaluation, and request only those messages. For example, the present invention may be used to limit a download of POP3 email messages to those received in the last n days. When a message is downloaded that does not meet user-specified filtering criteria such as a date window, the message data is discarded, but the state of that message as not meeting the criteria is preserved in an already-checked table. On a subsequent data request, the received list of unique message IDs is checked against the main message store and the checked table, and message data only downloaded if the unique ID is not found. Messages that are not listed are removed from the message store or the checked table.
37 Citations
32 Claims
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15. In a computing device, a method comprising:
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retrieving a list of message identifiers from a server;
for each message identifier, determining whether the message identifier corresponds to a message that meets filtering criteria, does not meet the filtering criteria or is unknown with respect to the filtering criteria; and
for each message that is unknown with respect to the filtering criteria, downloading message data from the server, evaluating the message data to determine whether the message meets or does not meet the filtering criteria, and persisting data indicative of whether the message met or did not meet the filtering criteria. - View Dependent Claims (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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26-1. The method of claim 15 wherein the filtering criteria comprises a time window, and wherein evaluating each message that is unknown with respect to the filtering criteria comprises evaluating downloaded message data against the time window.
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28. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:
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a set of records, each record having data that identifies a message with associated message data that has been evaluated against filtering criteria and failed to meet the filtering criteria; and
wherein when a request to synchronize client data with server data is received, at least one message identifier of a list of message identifiers received from the server is processed against the set of records, to determine, for each such processed message identifier, whether message data corresponding to that message identifier needs to be downloaded for comparing against the filtering criteria, or whether the processed identifier corresponds to a message that already failed to meet the filtering criteria. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification