Managing Rich Presence Collections

• US 20070239866A1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rang, Timothy, Kutan, Serkan, Cox, Shaun, Parthasarathy, Vijay
• Granted Patent: US 8,234,559 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols

Abstract

A method and system for increasing the computational and network efficiency of presence servers having collections of publications is provided. The presence system uses several techniques that enable a presence server to provide rich presence information without requiring expensive processing. First, the presence system accepts batches of publication updates in a single presence update request. Similarly, the presence system accepts batches of subscription requests. Next, the presence system supports new expiration types for publication update requests that eliminate the need for a publishing user to continually refresh presence information that has not changed. Finally, the presence system accepts access lists that contain membership groups rather than an individual list of users that are to have access to a particular presence collection.

Claims

1. A system of expiring published presence information from a presence server, comprising:

a receive request component that receives a request to publish presence information containing a user identifier and an expiration type indicating that the presence information should remain published based on a connect status;

a connect status detection component that detects that the connect status has changed; and

an unpublish publication component that unpublishes presence information from the presence server when the connect status detection component detects that the connect status has changed.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the connect status indicates whether a particular device is connected to the presence server.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the connect status indicates whether a particular user is active on the presence server.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein a user is active when the user is logged on to the presence server through at least one device.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein a change in connect status is detected by receiving a message indicating that the connect status has changed.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein a change in connect status is detected when no message has been received from a device for a specified time interval.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein a change in connect status is detected when a device fails to respond to a request from the presence server.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the request uses the SIP protocol.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the presence information contains calendar information for a publishing user.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the presence server receives batches of publications in a single request.

11. A system of publishing presence information to a presence server, comprising:

a receive publish request component that receives a request to publish presence information containing a user identifier and an expiration type indicating that the presence information should never expire,

a receive unpublish request component that receives a request indicating that presence information should no longer be published; and

an unpublish publication component that unpublishes presence information from the presence server when a request is received indicating that the information should no longer be published.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the request to publish presence information is sent on behalf of a user by a web service.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the web service provides calendar information.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the request to publish presence information is sent by the user for information that changes infrequently.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the publish request uses the SIP protocol.

16. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for expiring published presence information from a presence server, by a method comprising:

receiving a request to publish presence information containing a user identifier and an expiration type indicating that the presence information should remain published based on a connect status;

detecting that the connect status has changed; and

unpublishing the presence information from the presence server after detecting that the connect status has changed.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the connect status indicates whether a particular device is connected to the presence server.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the connect status indicates whether a particular user is active on the presence server.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein a user is active when the user is logged on to the presence server through at least one device.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the presence server receives batches of publications in a single request.