System and method of merging contacts

• US 20060085483A1
• Filed: 10/14/2004
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mooney, Stephen John, Venkatacharya, Patanjali Srivatsa, Fisher, Oliver Griffith, Dunn, Melissa Wood
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation

Abstract

A method of merging contact information. A method of merging contact information received from multiple sources comprising the acts of identifying a first data record including a first information content as representing a contact, identifying a second data record, having a second information content differing from the first data record, and representing the contact, and merging the first data record and the second data record into a single contact record.

Claims

1. A method of merging contact information received from multiple sources comprising the acts of:

identifying a first data record including a first information content as representing a contact

identifying a second data record, having a second information content differing from the first data record, and representing the contact; and

merging the first data record and the second data record into a single contact record.

2. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, in which the single contact record includes the first information content and the second information content.

3. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, in which the first data record originates from a first remote store and the second data record originates from a second remote store.

4. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 3, further comprising the act of:

maintaining a representation of the first data record in the first data store; and

maintaining a representation of the second data record in the second data store.

5. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 3, comprising the additional act of merging the first data record to be compatible with the data record of the second data record of the second data store.

6. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, where merging includes the deep merging of metadata.

7. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, where merging is the unification of a plurality of contacts that refer to the same person that results in one contact record for one person.

8. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, where a contact is a single person.

9. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, where a contact is a single group.

10. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, where a contact is a single organization.

11. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, where a contact is stored in a client contact store.

12. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 3, where the first remote store is not part of a client contact store.

13. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, comprising the further step of resolving conflicts between the first data record and the second data record.

14. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, comprising the additional step of forming a composite from merging the first data record and the second data record into a single contact record.

15. The method of merging contact information received from multiple sources of claim 1, in which the single contact record includes relationships that point to the single contact record.

16. In a computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of interacting with a user to merge contacts comprising:

displaying a plurality of contacts;

receiving an indication to merge at least two contacts of the plurality of contacts; and

displaying a merged contact derived from a merging of the at least two contacts.

17. The computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of interacting with a user to merge contacts of claim 16 further comprising, displaying an animation of the at least two contacts of the plurality of contacts merging.

18. The computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of interacting with a user to merge contacts of claim 16, in which the merged contact displayed includes all of the non-single valued information from the at least two contacts.

19. The computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of interacting with a user to merge contacts of claim 16, in which the merged contact includes all of the non-single valued information from the plurality of contacts.

20. The computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of interacting with a user to merge contacts of claim 16, in which the merged contact displayed includes at least one item of non single valued information taken from the merged contact having all of the non single valued information merged from the plurality of contacts.

21. A method of merging contact data comprising:

merging a plurality of contact data records into a composite merged contact;

resolving conflicting single valued data fields from the plurality of contacts into the composite merged contact; and

automatically resolving conflicting non-single valued data fields from the plurality of contacts into the composite merged contact by retaining the conflicting information.

22. The method of merging contact data of claim 21, further comprising, undoing the merge of data into the composite contact prior to terminating the merge process.

23. The method of merging contact data of claim 21, further comprising, undoing the merge of data into the composite contact after terminating the merge process.

24. A method of merging contact data comprising:

merging a plurality of contact data records into a composite merged contact;

identifying conflicting single valued data in the plurality of contact data records; and

resolving conflicting single valued data fields from the plurality of contacts into the composite merged contact.

25. The method of merging contact data of claim 24, in which resolving the conflicting single valued data fields includes:

creating a log;

querying the user to select a retained single valued data field from the plurality of conflicting single valued data fields to retain contained in the log; and

including the retained single valued data field in the merged contact.

26. A method of merging contact data comprising:

merging a plurality of contact data records into a composite merged contact;

automatically resolving conflicting non-single valued data fields from the plurality of contacts into the composite merged contact by retaining the conflicting information in the composite merged contact.

27. The method of merging contact data of claim 26, in which the non-single valued data includes meta data

28. A data processing system adapted to communicate with an external network comprising:

a first processor of a remote contact store;

a first memory coupled to the first processor and having stored program instructions, the processor being operable to execute the program instructions, the program instructions including;

receiving a contact record;

storing the contact record; and

transmitting the contact record;

a second processor of a contact store;

a second memory coupled to the second processor and having stored program instructions, the processor being operable to execute the program instructions, the program instructions including;

retrieving the contact record from the first memory;

finding a conflicting contact record stored in the second memory;

merging the conflicting contact record with the contact record to form a merged contact; and

storing the merged contact in the second memory.

29. The data processing system adapted to communicate with an external network of claim 28, in which the second memory further includes program instructions to synchronize the contact record retrieved from the first memory to be compatible with the conflicting contact.

30. The data processing system adapted to communicate with an external network of claim 28, in which the first processor and first memory are part of a PDA.

31. The data processing system adapted to communicate with an external network of claim 28, in which the first processor and first memory are part of a cellular telephone.

32. The data processing system adapted to communicate with an external network of claim 28, in which the first processor and first memory are part of a computer.

33. The data processing system adapted to communicate with an external network of claim 28, in which the first processor and first memory are part of a remote electronic device.

34. The data processing system adapted to communicate with an external network of claim 28, in which the second processor and second memory are part of a computer.

35. A computer readable medium having computer program instructions for execution by a computer, the instructions comprising:

a computer operating system; and

a contact explorer program including contact merging software.

36. The computer readable medium having computer program instructions for execution by a computer, of claim 35, the instructions further comprising a contact synchronization program.

37. The computer readable medium having computer program instructions for execution by a computer, of claim 35, the instructions further comprising one of a plurality of application programs.