SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELAYED ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF CLIENT REQUESTS IN ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM

• US 20080082409A1
• Filed: 10/02/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: HUYNH, Truyen
• Granted Patent: US 7,987,235 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

An electronic mail (email) communication system includes a mobile office platform. A direct access proxy accesses an electronic mailbox of the user and pushes email from the electronic mailbox of the user to a wireless communications device. A web client engine is operative with the mobile office platform and includes a port agent module that communicates with the wireless communications device over a port agent connection. It is operative to receive a message from a wireless communications device as a request corresponding to a job to be completed. A worker module receives the message from the port agent module and completes the job. The web client engine attempts to process jobs within a specified delay time, and if successful, transmits an acknowledgment (ACK) to indicate the job has been completed without saving the message to a jobstore database. If the job has not been completed within a specified delay time, the message can be saved to the database.

Claims

1. An electronic mail (email) communications system, comprising:

a mobile office platform comprising a direct access proxy for accessing an electronic mailbox of the user and pushing email from the electronic mailbox of the user to a wireless communications device;

a web client engine operative with the mobile office platform, and comprising a port agent module that communicates with the wireless communications device over an SRP connection and operative to receive a message from a wireless communications device as a request corresponding to a job to be completed, and a worker module that receives the message from the port agent module for completing the job; and

a database for storing any messages as requests,

wherein the web client engine is operative for attempting to process the job within a specified delay time, and if successful, transmitting an Acknowledgement (ACK) back to the wireless communications device to indicate the job has been completed without saving the message as a request to said database, and if the job has not been completed within a specified delay time, saving the message as a request in the database and transmitting an ACK back to the wireless communications device indicating that the message as a request had been received and is stored at said database.

2. The electronic mail communications system according to claim 1, and further comprising a relay module that receives any messages from a wireless communications device and transfers any messages to an available port agent module.

3. The electronic mail communications system according to claim 2, wherein said relay module is operative for receiving an ACK from a port agent module and transferring the ACK to the wireless communications device.

4. The electronic mail communications system according to claim 3, wherein said port agent module is operative for delaying the transmission of an ACK back to the relay module while a worker module is assigned the request corresponding to the job to be completed.

5. The electronic mail communications system according to claim 3, wherein said relay module is operative for retrying communication with a port agent module if an ACK is not received within a specified delay time.

6. The electronic mail communications system according to claim 1, wherein said port agent transmits an ACK until it receives an indication that the request corresponding to the job to be completed is committed, completed or failed.

7. The electronic mail communications system according to claim 1, wherein said database comprises a port agent jobstore.

8. The electronic mail communications system according to claim 1, wherein said message comprises a Message From Handheld (MFH) data packet.

9. A method for communicating between a user of a wireless communications device and an electronic mail (email) server, which comprises:

receiving at the email server from the wireless communications device a message as a request corresponding to a job to be completed at the email server;

attempting to process the job within a specified delay time, and if successful, transmitting an Acknowledgement (ACK) back to the wireless communications device to indicate that the job has been completed without saving the message as a request to a database; and

if the job has not been completed within the specified delay time, saving the message as a request in a database and transmitting an ACK back to the wireless communications device indicating that the message as a request has been received at the email server and is stored at a database.

10. A method according to claim 9, which further comprises receiving the message within a port agent module that communicates with the wireless communications device over a port agent connection and assigning the request to a worker module for completing the job.

11. A method according to claim 10, which further comprises receiving the message within a web client engine that includes the port agent module and worker module that communicate with a mobile office platform that includes a direct access proxy for accessing an electronic mailbox of the user.

12. A method according to claim 10, which further comprises delaying transmission of an ACK from a port agent module and assigning to a worker module the request corresponding to the job to be completed.

13. A method according to claim 10, which further comprises receiving the message within a relay module and assigning the message to an available port agent module.

14. A method according to claim 13, which further comprises transmitting an ACK back to the relay module if no indication of committed, completed or failed is received

15. A method according to claim 10, which further comprises retrying communication with another port agent module if a port agent connection fails.

16. A method according to claim 10, which further comprises receiving at the port agent module an indication that the request corresponding to the job to be completed is committed, completed or failed.

17. A method according to claim 10, which further comprises storing the message within a port agent module jobstore.

18. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for executing functions comprising:

receiving at the email server from the wireless communications device a message as a request corresponding to a job to be transacted at the email server;

attempting to process the job within a specified delay time, and if successful, transmitting an Acknowledgement (ACK) back to the wireless communications device to indicate the job has been completed without saving the request to a database; and

if the job has not been completed within the specified delay time, saving the request in a database and transmitting an ACK back to the wireless communications device indicating that the request has been received at the email server and is stored at a database.

19. A computer-readable medium according to claim 18, which further comprises receiving the message within a port agent module that communicates with the wireless communications device over a port agent connection and assigning the request to a worker module for completing the job to be completed.

20. A computer-readable medium according to claim 19, which further comprises receiving the message within a web client engine that includes the port agent module and worker module that communicates with a mobile office platform that includes a direct access proxy for accessing an electronic mailbox of the user.