DIRECT ACCESS ELECTRONIC MAIL (EMAIL) DISTRIBUTION AND SYNCHRONIZATION SYSTEM WITH IMAP-IDLE IMPLEMENTATION

• US 20080256203A1
• Filed: 01/31/2008
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: TeamOn Systems Incorporated (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: GORTY, Suryanarayana M., Wely, Matthew Van
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,841 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

The communications system includes a network engine that communicates with the plurality of a user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices via a communications network for sending and receiving emails. A direct access server is operative with the network engine for polling electronic mailboxes of users from an email source and retrieving electronic messages from the electronic mailboxes and pushing any electronic mailboxes to the network engine to selected users subscribed mobile wireless communications devices. The direct access server communicates with an email source using the internet message access protocol (IMAP) and IMAP-Idle supportable connections to accept real-time notifications such that when a connection limit is reached or exceeded to an email source, the direct access server disables IMAP-Idle connections to the email source.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising:

a network engine that communicates with a plurality of user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices via a communications network for sending and receiving emails therefrom; and

a direct access server operative with the network engine for polling electronic mailboxes of users from an email source and retrieving email from the electronic mailboxes and pushing any email through the network engine to selected user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices, said direct access server operative for communicating with an email source using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and IMAP Idle supportable connections to accept real-time notifications such that when a connection limit is reached or exceeded to an email source, said direct access server disables IMAP-Idle connections to the email source.

2. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein no IMAP-Idle connection can be made to an email source when a connection limit has been reached.

3. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein if IMAP-Idle connection attempts to an email source fail a predetermined number of times, said direct access server will not attempt to connect to an email source using an IMAP-Idle connection.

4. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein said direct access server comprises an IMAP-Idle manager module that marks the email source as IMAP-Idle disabled such that the email source will not be connected to establish an IMAP-Idle connection.

5. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein said direct access server is operative for determining whether an IMAP-Idle connection has been dropped when a secondary connection was in progress such that an IMAP-Idle connection is disabled.

6. The communications system according to claim 5, wherein said secondary connection comprises a connection for email polling.

7. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein an email account is not subscribed in the future when an IMAP-Idle connection is disabled.

8. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein said direct access server is operative for issuing an IMAP fetch to check if new email was received.

9. A communications system, comprising:

a network engine that communicates with a plurality of user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices via a communications network for sending and receiving emails therefrom; and

a direct access server operative with the network engine for polling electronic mailboxes of users from an email source and retrieving email from the electronic mailboxes and pushing any email through the network engine to selected user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices, said direct access server operative for communicating with an email source using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and IMAP Idle supportable connections that are subscribed by a user to accept real-time notifications such that when a connection limit is reached or exceeded to an email source, said direct access server disables IMAP-Idle connections to the email source.

10. The communications system according to claim 9, wherein a user subscribes to enable IMAP-Idle connections upon subscribing to an email source as an email service provider.

11. The communications system according to claim 9, wherein no IMAP-Idle connection can be made to an email source when a connection limit has been reached.

12. The communications system according to claim 9, wherein if IMAP-Idle connection attempts to an email source fail a predetermined number of times, said direct access server will not attempt to connect to an email source using an IMAP-Idle connection.

13. The communications system according to claim 9, wherein said direct access server comprises an IMAP-Idle manager module that marks the email source as IMAP-Idle disabled such that the email source will not be connected to establish an IMAP-Idle connection.

14. The communications system according to claim 9, wherein said direct access server is operative for determining whether an IMAP-Idle connection has been dropped when a secondary connection was in progress such that an IMAP-Idle connection is disabled.

15. The communications system according to claim 14, wherein said secondary connection comprises a connection for email polling.

16. The communications system according to claim 9, wherein an email account is not subscribed in the future when an IMAP-Idle connection is disabled.

17. The communications system according to claim 9, wherein said direct access server is operative for issuing an IMAP fetch to check if new mail was received.

18. A communications method, comprising:

polling electronic mailboxes of users at an email source from a direct access server;

retrieving email from the electronic mailboxes;

pushing any email through a network engine to selected user subscribed mobile wireless communications devices; and

communicating with an email source using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and IMAP Idle supportable connections to accept real-time notifications such that when a connection limit is reached or exceeded to an email source, the direct access server disables IMAP-Idle connections to the email source.

19. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises marking the email source as IMAP-Idle disabled such that the email source will not be connected to establish an IMAP-Idle connection.

20. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises not subscribing in the future to an email account when an IMAP-Idle connection is disabled.

21. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises determining whether an IMAP-Idle connection has been dropped when a secondary connection was in progress such that an IMAP-Idle connection is disabled.

22. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises issuing an IMAP fetch to check if new mail was received.

23. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises user subscribing to an IMAP-Idle enabled connection.