BUDDY LIST PRUNING FOR INSTANT MESSAGING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT

• US 20080126532A1
• Filed: 11/03/2006
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Curley, David P., O'Sullivan, Patrick, Smyth, Hugh
• Granted Patent: US 8,117,302 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to buddy list management for instant messaging systems and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for buddy list pruning for instant messaging system performance enhancement. In one embodiment of the invention, a buddy list pruning method for instant messaging system performance enhancement can include comparing buddy list name entries in a buddy list to entries in a network directory used to authenticate users into a network supporting the instant messaging system. The method further can include characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid where a buddy list name entry cannot be matched to an entry in the network directory, or as valid where the buddy list name entry can be matched to an entry in the network directory. Finally, the method can include performing presence awareness only on valid buddy list name entries in the buddy list.

Claims

1. A buddy list pruning method for instant messaging system performance enhancement, the method comprising:

comparing buddy list name entries in a buddy list to entries in a network directory used to authenticate users into a network supporting the instant messaging system;

characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid where a buddy list name entry cannot be matched to an entry in the network directory, or valid where the buddy list name entry can be matched to an entry in the network directory; and

,

performing presence awareness only on valid buddy list name entries in the buddy list.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising marking invalid buddy list entries in the buddy list.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising deleting invalid buddy list entries from the buddy list.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising moving invalid buddy list entries from the buddy list into a trash folder.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid or valid periodically on a schedule.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid or valid manually on command.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid or valid further comprises:

storing valid ones of the buddy list name entries in a valid cache; and

,

storing invalid ones of the buddy list name entries in an invalid cache.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein performing presence awareness only on valid buddy list name entries in the buddy list, comprises performing presence awareness only on buddy list name entries in the valid cache.

9. In a network environment, an instant messaging data processing system comprising:

an instant messaging server configured for coupling to a plurality of instant messaging clients and to a network directory storing entries associated with authorized users of the network environment;

presence awareness coupled to the instant messaging server; and

,

buddy list pruning logic coupled to the instant messaging server, the logic comprising program code enabled to compare buddy list name entries in buddy lists for corresponding ones of the instant messaging clients to entries in the network directory to identify invalid ones of the buddy list name entries.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a valid cache and an invalid cache, the valid cache storing buddy list names found to be valid and by the buddy list pruning logic, the invalid cache storing buddy list names found to be invalid by the buddy list pruning logic.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for buddy list pruning for instant messaging system performance enhancement, the computer program product including:

computer usable program code for comparing buddy list name entries in a buddy list to entries in a network directory used to authenticate users into a network supporting the instant messaging system;

computer usable program code for characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid where a buddy list name entry cannot be matched to an entry in the network directory, or valid where the buddy list name entry can be matched to an entry in the network directory; and

,

computer usable program code for performing presence awareness only on valid buddy list name entries in the buddy list.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer usable program code for marking invalid buddy list entries in the buddy list.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer usable program code for deleting invalid buddy list entries from the buddy list.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer usable program code for moving invalid buddy list entries from the buddy list into a trash folder.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer usable program code for characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid or valid periodically on a schedule.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer usable program code for characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid or valid manually on command.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer usable program code for characterizing selected ones of the buddy list name entries as either invalid or valid further comprises:

computer usable program code for storing valid ones of the buddy list name entries in a valid cache; and

,

computer usable program code for storing invalid ones of the buddy list name entries in an invalid cache.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the computer usable program code for performing presence awareness only on valid buddy list name entries in the buddy list, comprises computer usable program code for performing presence awareness only on buddy list name entries in the valid cache.