MAPPING ONLINE CONTACT INFORMATION INTO A CONTACTS LIST

• US 20090089308A1
• Filed: 10/02/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Masterson, Michael L., Beadle, Gary M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,885,937 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

A presence management system may communicate contact information with mapped values. Contact information may be stored in a hierarchical, extensible structure (“hierarchical extensible contact structure”). Devices in a presence management system utilize a mapping scheme to map contact values (e.g., e-mail address, phone number, etc.) to the appropriate field of the hierarchical extensible contact structure. When devices in the presence management system communicate information for thousands of contacts, employing mapped values to navigate the hierarchical extensible contact structure reduces the size of the messages, thus reducing resource consumption (e.g., bandwidth), particularly on the scale of an enterprise.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

mapping an online contact identifier to a first mapping value that corresponds to an entry in a first hierarchical extensible contact list at a first device, wherein the online contact identifier represents contact values that facilitate communication with a contact associated with the online contact identifier;

mapping a first of the contact values to a second mapping value from a contact field identifier of a first contact field of the first hierarchical extensible contact list, wherein said mapping of the online contact identifier and said mapping of the first contact value conform to a mapping scheme established at the first device and a second device; and

using the first mapping value and the second mapping value to communicate the first contact value for a corresponding second contact field, of a second hierarchical extensible contact list at the second device, wherein the contact field identifier is associated with the second contact field.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second mapping value is more compact than the corresponding first contact field identifier of the hierarchical extensible contact list.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mapping value is more compact than the online contact identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said using comprises generating an update message with the first mapping value, the second mapping value, and the first contact value to communicate the first contact value for the second contact field.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first contact value comprises one of a phone number, a geographic location, an online presence status, an e-mail address, and a power mode.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising using the second mapping value to communicate modifications to the first hierarchical extensible contact list, which affect the contact field, to the second device for the second hierarchical extensible contact list.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising reusing the first mapping value for a different online contact identifier.

8. A program product encoded in one or more machine-readable media, the program product comprising:

code executable to map an online contact identifier to a first mapping value that corresponds to an entry in a first hierarchical extensible contact list at a first device, wherein the online contact identifier represents contact values that facilitate communication with a contact associated with the online contact identifier;

code executable to map a first of the contact values to a second mapping value from a contact field identifier of a first contact field of the first hierarchical extensible contact list, wherein the online contact identifier mapping code and the contact value mapping code map in accordance with a mapping scheme established at the first device and a second device; and

code executable to use the first mapping value and the second mapping value to communicate the first contact value for a corresponding second contact field of a second hierarchical extensible contact list at the second device, wherein the contact field identifier is associated with the second contact field.

9. The program product of claim 8, wherein the second mapping value is more compact than the corresponding first contact field identifier of the hierarchical extensible contact list.

10. The program product of claim 8, wherein the code executable to use the first mapping value comprises code executable to generate an update message with the first mapping value, the second mapping value, and the first contact value to communicate the first contact value for the second contact field.

11. The program product of claim 8, wherein the first contact value comprises one of a phone number, a geographic location, an online presence status, an e-mail address, and a power mode.

12. An apparatus comprising:

one or more network interfaces configured to receive and to send contact values; and

a contact list manager configured to,

map an online contact identifier to a first mapping value that corresponds to an entry in a first hierarchical extensible contact list at a first device, wherein the online contact identifier represents contact values that facilitate communication with a contact associated with the online contact identifier;

map a first of the contact values to a second mapping value from a contact field identifier of a first contact field of the first hierarchical extensible contact list, wherein the contact list manager is configured to map in accordance with a mapping scheme established at the first device and a second device; and

use the first mapping value and the second mapping value to communicate the first contact value for a corresponding second contact field of a second hierarchical extensible contact list at the second device, wherein the contact field identifier is associated with the second contact field.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising a set of one or more processors.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the second mapping value is more compact than the corresponding first contact field identifier of the hierarchical extensible contact list.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the contact list manager is further configured to generate an update message with the first mapping value, the second mapping value, and the first contact value to communicate the first contact value for the second contact, field.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the first contact value comprises one of a phone number, a geographic location, an online presence status, an e-mail address, and a power mode.

17. A system comprising:

a first device operable to

map an online contact identifier to a first mapping value that corresponds to an entry in a first hierarchical extensible contact list, wherein the online contact identifier represents contact values that facilitate communication with a contact associated with the online contact identifier,

map a first of the contact values to a second mapping value from a contact field identifier of a first contact field of the first hierarchical extensible contact list, wherein the first device maps in accordance with a mapping scheme,

generate and transmit a message with the first mapping value, the second mapping value, and the first contact value; and

a second device operable to

communicate with the first device,

process the message;

map the first mapping value to an entry in a second hierarchical extensible contact list for the online contact identifier,

map the second mapping value to a second contact field of the entry in the second hierarchical extensible contact list, wherein the contact field identifier is associated with the second contact field, and

write the first contact value to the second contact field.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first contact field comprises a subfield.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the second mapping value is more compact than the corresponding first contact field identifier of the hierarchical extensible contact list.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the first mapping value is more compact than the online contact identifier.