E-Mail Delivery Options Usability Tool

• US 20080043942A1
• Filed: 08/03/2006
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cardona, Omar, Olivieri, Ricardo N.
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments

Abstract

Generally speaking, systems, methods and media for facilitating user-specified delivery options for e-mail messages are disclosed. Embodiments of the method may include receiving by an e-mail client an indication of contents of an e-mail message and a plurality of intended recipients of the e-mail message and generating the e-mail message based on the received indication. Embodiments may also include receiving an indication of user-specified delivery options for each intended recipient of the message, generating meta-data based on the user-specified delivery options, and adding an indication of the meta-data to the message, such as in the data area of the e-mail message. Embodiments may also include transmitting the e-mail message to a mail server. The user-specified delivery options may include one or more of attachment delivery options, signed copy recipient options, signature options, message importance options, return receipt options, delivery priority options, prevent copy recipient options, or message formatting options.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting an e-mail message, the method comprising:

receiving by an e-mail client from a user an indication of contents of an e-mail message and a plurality of intended recipients of the e-mail message;

receiving by the e-mail client from the user an indication of user-specified delivery options for each intended recipient of the e-mail message;

generating by the e-mail client the e-mail message based on the received indication of e-mail message contents and the intended recipients;

by the e-mail client, generating meta-data based on the user-specified delivery options and adding an indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message; and

transmitting by the e-mail client the e-mail message to a mail server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing by the e-mail client a connection with the mail server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving by the e-mail client return information from the mail server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-specified delivery options include one or more of attachment delivery options, signed copy recipient options, signature options, message importance options, return receipt options, delivery priority options, prevent copy recipient options, or message formatting options.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received indication of user-specified delivery options for each recipient comprises an indication of whether the user desires for each recipient to receive the e-mail message consistent with one or more delivery options.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-specified delivery options that are available are configured for an organization.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message comprises inserting the generated meta-data into a data area of the e-mail message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message comprises attaching the generated meta-data to the e-mail message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message comprises inserting the generated meta-data into a header area of the e-mail message.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting meta-data from the e-mail message comprises extracting meta-data from a data area of the e-mail message.

10. A computer-readable medium containing instructions effective, when executing in a data processing system, to cause said data processing system to perform operations comprising:

receiving from a user an indication of contents of an e-mail message and a plurality of intended recipients of the e-mail message;

receiving from the user an indication of user-specified delivery options for each intended recipient of the e-mail message;

generating the e-mail message based on the received indication of e-mail message contents and the intended recipients;

generating meta-data based on the user-specified delivery options and adding an indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message; and

transmitting the e-mail message to a mail server.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising establishing a connection with the mail server.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising receiving return information from the mail server.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the user-specified delivery options include one or more of attachment delivery options, signed copy recipient options, signature options, message importance options, return receipt options, delivery priority options, prevent copy recipient options, message formatting options.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the received indication of user-specified delivery options for each recipient comprises an indication of whether the user desires for each recipient to receive the e-mail message consistent with one or more delivery options.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein adding the indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message comprises inserting the generated meta-data into a data area of the e-mail message.

16. An e-mail client system, the system comprising:

a user interface to receive input from a user, the user input comprising an indication of contents of an e-mail message, intended recipients of the e-mail message, and one or more user-specified delivery options for at least one intended recipient of the e-mail message;

an e-mail message manager in communication with the user interface to generate the e-mail message based on the received user input;

a customized e-mail delivery module in communication with the user interface to generate meta-data based on the user-specified delivery options and to add an indication of the generated meta-data to the e-mail message; and

a mail server interface to transmit the e-mail message to a mail server.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the customized e-mail delivery module further comprises a delivery option module to analyze the user-specified delivery options for each intended recipients and to generate meta-data based on the delivery options.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the customized e-mail delivery module further comprises a meta-data extraction module to extract meta-data from a received e-mail message.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the customized e-mail delivery module adds an indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message by inserting the generated meta-data into a data area of the e-mail message.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the user-specified delivery options include one or more of attachment delivery options, signed copy recipient options, signature options, message importance options, return receipt options, delivery priority options, prevent copy recipient options, message formatting options.

21. A method for handling an e-mail message, the method comprising:

receiving by a mail server from an e-mail client an e-mail message;

extracting by the mail server meta-data from the e-mail message, the meta-data comprising an indication of user-specified delivery options for one or more intended recipients of the e-mail message;

determining by the mail server delivery options for each intended recipient of the e-mail message based on the extracted meta-data;

modifying by the mail server the e-mail message for each recipient based on the user-specified delivery options to generate two or more e-mail messages with different delivery options; and

transmitting by the mail server the modified e-mail messages to the intended recipients.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising establishing by the mail server a connection with an e-mail client.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the user-specified delivery options include one or more of attachment delivery options, signed copy recipient options, signature options, message importance options, return receipt options, delivery priority options, prevent copy recipient options, message formatting options.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein modifying the e-mail message for each recipient comprises, in response to determining that a recipient does not support customized delivery options, removing the meta-data from the e-mail message.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein generating two or more e-mail messages with different delivery options comprises generating one or more e-mail messages having an attachment and one or more e-mail messages without an attachment.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein generating two or more e-mail messages with different delivery options comprises generating one or more e-mail messages having a particular delivery option at a first setting and one or more e-mail messages having the particular delivery option at a second setting.

28. An e-mail system, the system comprising:

an e-mail client, comprising;

a user interface to receive input from a user, the user input comprising an indication of contents of an e-mail message, intended recipients of the e-mail message, and one or more user-specified delivery options for each intended recipient of the e-mail message;

a customized e-mail delivery module in communication with the user interface to generate meta-data based on the user-specified delivery options and to add an indication of the generated meta-data to the e-mail message; and

a mail server interface to transmit the e-mail message to the mail server; and

a mail server in communication with the e-mail client, comprising;

a communication module having an e-mail client interface to receive an e-mail message from the e-mail client; and

a delivery handler module to extract from received e-mail messages meta-data providing user-specified delivery options and to modify e-mail messages for each recipient of the e-mail message based on the user-specified delivery options.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the customized e-mail delivery module adds an indication of the generated meta-data to the generated e-mail message by inserting the generated meta-data into a data area of the e-mail message, and wherein further the delivery handler module extracts meta-data from the data area of the e-mail message.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the user-specified delivery options include one or more of attachment delivery options, signed copy recipient options, signature options, message importance options, return receipt options, delivery priority options, prevent copy recipient options, message formatting options.