Availability data service

• US 20070055669A1
• Filed: 11/04/2005
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mayans, Jason, Murillo, Dan, Mok, Alvin, Avery, William, Gorti, Suryanarayana
• Granted Patent: US 7,849,102 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/81 Indexing, e.g. XML tags; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

Real time availability data (free/busy data) is provided for potential meeting attendees and/or assets. An availability service is queried for availability data for one or more attendees and/or meeting assets. The availability service determines the identity of an electronic mailbox server on which is stored current real time calendaring data for the desired attendees and/or assets. The requested data is retrieved by the availability service from one or more mailbox servers having data for each attendee and/or asset. Potential attendees may set permissions on their respective availability data to restrict the amount and types of data that may be retrieved by a given data requester. Data queries and data responses may be structured according to the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and application programming interfaces (API) may be exposed for allowing requesting applications to efficiently call the availability service for availability data.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method of obtaining availability data for one or more potential meeting attendees, comprising:

receiving an availability data query at a first availability service;

passing the availability data query to a storage location for retrieving availability data for one or more meeting attendees;

at the storage location, retrieving real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees;

passing the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees back to the first availability service; and

at the first availability service, forwarding the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees to a requesting application.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising forwarding the availability data for the one or more meeting attendees to the requesting application for establishing a meeting with the one or more meeting attendees based on the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, whereby the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees includes information showing the dates and times the one or more meeting attendees are free and showing the dates and times the one or more meeting attendees are busy.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, prior to passing the availability data query to a storage location, further comprising:

at the first availability service, determining a storage location that includes availability data for the one or more attendees.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 4, whereby determining a storage location that includes availability data for the one or more attendees includes parsing an information directory for information identifying a storage location associated with availability data for each of the one or more meeting attendees.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5, whereby if the storage location for the availability data is associated with a second availability service, passing the availability data query from the first availability service to the second availability service for retrieving the availability data for the one or more meeting attendees via the second availability service.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, prior to retrieving the data for the one or more meeting attendees, determining whether permissions set by the one or more meeting attendees allows a retrieval of the availability data for the one or more meeting attendees.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, whereby if the permissions set by the one or more meeting attendees restricts a retrieval of the availability data for any of the one or more attendees, retrieving from the storage location the availability data for the any of the one or more meeting attendees as restricted by the permissions.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1, whereby receiving an availability data query at a first availability service includes receiving a meeting request for one or more meeting attendees from a requesting calendaring application.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1,

whereby receiving an availability data query at a first availability service includes receiving the availability data query as an Extensible Markup Language (XML) structured data query, and

whereby passing the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees back to the first availability service includes passing the real time availability data back to the first availability service as an XML structured data message.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an application programming interface (API) for querying the first availability service for real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 12, whereby providing an application programming interface (API) for querying the first availability service for real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees, includes providing an API of the form GetCalendarViews( ).

13. A system for obtaining availability data for one or more potential meeting attendees, comprising:

an availability service operative

to receive an availability data query for free/busy data associated with a meeting request attendee;

to pass the availability data query to a storage location for retrieving the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee;

a mailbox server operative

to store the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee;

to retrieve the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee;

to pass the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee back to the availability service; and

the availability service being further operative to forward the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee to a requesting application.

14. The system of claim 13, whereby the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee includes information showing the dates and times the one or more meeting attendees are free and showing the dates and times the one or more meeting attendees are busy.

15. The system of claim 13, whereby the availability service is further operative to determine a mailbox server that includes the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee.

16. The system of claim 15, whereby the availability service is further operative to parse an information directory for information identifying the mailbox server associated with the free/busy data associated with the meeting request attendee.

17. A method of obtaining availability data for one or more potential meeting attendees, comprising:

receiving an availability data query at a first availability service;

at the first availability service, determining a mailbox server that includes availability data for the one or more attendees

passing the availability data query to the mailbox server for retrieving availability data for one or more meeting attendees;

at the mailbox server, retrieving real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees;

passing the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees back to the first availability service; and

at the first availability service, forwarding the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees to a requesting application.

18. The method of claim 17, whereby if the mailbox server for the availability data is associated with a second availability service, passing the availability data query from the first availability service to the second availability service for retrieving the availability data for the one or more meeting attendees via the second availability service.

19. The method of claim 17, prior to retrieving the data for the one or more meeting attendees, determining whether permissions set by the one or more meeting attendees allows a retrieval of the availability data for the one or more meeting attendees.

20. The method of claim 17,

whereby receiving an availability data query at a first availability service includes receiving the availability data query as an Extensible Markup Language (XML) structured data query, and

whereby passing the real time availability data for the one or more meeting attendees back to the first availability service includes passing the real time availability data back to the first availability service as an XML structured data message.