Automatic off-line availability for document content linked in electronic mail messages

• US 20060206570A1
• Filed: 03/11/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Heidloff, Niklas, O'Brien, Michael R., Groeger, Hardy
• Granted Patent: US 8,195,746 B2
• 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 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages

Abstract

A system for providing automatic off-line availability of shared document content linked in electronic mail (“email”) messages. Documents indicated by links in processed email messages may accessed when a client system user is working either online or offline. A software component operates to read through email messages sent to a client system user, and to locate messages including links to content stored on the server system. The software component accesses the content indicated by the links contained in the email messages, and moves the content onto the client system for offline access. The software component may include a periodically scheduled agent, and/or a component that is called just prior to the client system or email application going offline.

Claims

1. A method for providing offline access to content indicated by links contained in electronic mail messages, comprising:

processing a set of electronic mail messages sent to a client system, wherein said processing includes identifying a subset of said electronic mail messages including links to content stored on a server system; and

moving, responsive to said links, said content stored on said server system to said client system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said links comprise uniform resource locators.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a predetermined operation on a document in a set of shared documents stored on said server system;

wherein said electronic mail messages comprise a notification message indicating that said predetermined operation has been performed on said document in said set of shared documents stored on said server system; and

wherein said content stored on said server system and moved to said client system comprises at least one document in said set of shared documents.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of processing and moving are performed by a software agent, wherein said software agent is triggered by an indication that said client system is going offline.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of processing and moving are performed by a software agent, wherein said software agent is triggered periodically.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of processing and moving are triggered by a request received from a user of said client computer system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said request includes indication of a preceding time period during which said electronic email messages to be processed were received.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said moving comprises:

determining a set of document types that can be processed on said client system;

determining a type of said content stored on said server system; and

in the event that said type of said content stored on said server system is not within said set of document types that can be processed on said client system, converting said content stored on said client system to a document type within said set of document types that can be processed on said client system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said moving comprises converting said content stored on said server system to HTML.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said moving comprises sending said content stored on said server system to said client system as an attachment to a corresponding one of said electronic mail messages.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said moving comprises sending said content stored on said server system to said client system in another electronic mail message independent of one of said electronic mail messages including said link to said content stored on said server system.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in the event that said client system is offline, intercepting, in said client system, a content request including a link to content stored on said server system; and

accessing, in response to said intercepted content request including said link to said content stored on said server system, a local copy of said content stored on said server system, wherein said local copy was previously moved to said client system from said server system.

13. A system having a computer readable medium, said computer readable medium having a computer program for providing offline access to content indicated by links contained in electronic mail messages stored thereon, said computer program comprising:

program code for processing a set of electronic mail messages sent to a client system, wherein said processing includes identifying a subset of said electronic mail messages including links to content stored on a server system; and

program code for moving, responsive to said links, said content stored on said server system to said client system.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said links comprise uniform resource locators.

15. The system of claim 13, said computer program further comprising:

program code for detecting a predetermined operation on a document in a set of shared documents stored on said server system;

wherein said electronic mail messages comprise a notification message indicating that said predetermined operation has been performed on said document in said set of shared documents stored on said server system; and

wherein said content stored on said server system and moved to said client system comprises at least one document in said set of shared documents.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein program code for processing and program code for moving comprise a software agent, wherein said software agent is triggered by an indication that said client system is going offline.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein said program code for processing and program code for moving comprise a software agent, wherein said software agent is triggered periodically.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein said steps of processing and moving are triggered by a request received from a user of said client computer system.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said request includes indication of a preceding time period during which said electronic email messages to be processed were received.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein said program code for moving comprises:

program code for determining a set of document types that can be processed on said client system;

program code for determining a type of said content stored on said server system; and

program code for, in the event that said type of said content stored on said server system is not within said set of document types that can be processed on said client system, converting said content stored on said client system to a document type within said set of document types that can be processed on said client system.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein said program code for moving comprises program code for converting said content stored on said server system to HTML.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein said program code for moving comprises program code for sending said content stored on said server system to said client system as an attachment to a corresponding one of said electronic mail messages.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein said program code for moving comprises program code for sending said content stored on said server system to said client system in another electronic mail message independent of one of said electronic mail messages including said link to said content stored on said server system.

24. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

program code for, in the event that said client system is offline, intercepting, in said client system, a content request including a link to content stored on said server system; and

program code for accessing, in response to said intercepted content request including said link to said content stored on said server system, a local copy of said content stored on said server system, wherein said local copy was previously moved to said client system from said server system.

25. A computer program product having a computer readable medium, said computer readable medium having a computer program for providing offline access to content indicated by links contained in electronic mail messages stored thereon, said computer program comprising:

program code for processing a set of electronic mail messages sent to a client system, wherein said processing includes identifying a subset of said electronic mail messages including links to content stored on a server system; and

program code for moving, responsive to said links, said content stored on said server system to said client system.

26. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, said computer data signal including at least one computer program for providing offline access to content indicated by links contained in electronic mail messages stored thereon, said computer program comprising:

program code for processing a set of electronic mail messages sent to a client system, wherein said processing includes identifying a subset of said electronic mail messages including links to content stored on a server system; and

program code for moving, responsive to said links, said content stored on said server system to said client system.

27. A system for providing offline access to content indicated by links contained in electronic mail messages, comprising:

means for processing a set of electronic mail messages sent to a client system, wherein said processing includes identifying a subset of said electronic mail messages including links to content stored on a server system; and

means for moving, responsive to said links, said content stored on said server system to said client system.