Enhanced calendaring functionality in a collaboration suite

• US 20090100347A1
• Filed: 12/14/2006
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schemers, Roland J., Brennan, Timothy W., Williams, Matthew Owen, Dargahi, Ross, Clark, James Andrew, Karp, Daniel Geoffrey, Hahm, Jiho
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present invention provide for enhanced calendaring functionality in a collaboration suite application. A mini-calendar display in different views of the collaboration suite application provide for an easy way to view, edit and/or add appointments without needing to open of the calendar in the collaboration suite application. Email messages can be dragged onto days in the mini-calendar to create meeting proposals. Enhanced UI allows for different meetings being having different appearances based on whether they have been accepted, rejected, etc. Multiple calendars can be viewed simultaneously and their cumulative availability for any time slot can be easily seen via a calendar thermometer. Requests for sharing of calendars can be communicated via email messages, and they can be seamlessly responded to within the email message itself.

Claims

1. A method for enhanced calendaring functionality in a collaboration suite application, the collaboration suite application comprising a plurality of elements, including a calendaring element, the method comprising:

displaying a miniature calendar in a subsidiary view, with one of the plurality of elements of the collaboration suite application being displayed in a main view; and

allowing a user to interact with entries in the calendaring element via the displayed miniature calendar.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein interacting with entries in the calendaring element comprises one of the group consisting of viewing, editing and adding appointments.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing for interaction of a mailbox item in the main view with the miniature calendar.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein interaction comprises dragging the mailbox item over to a day displayed in the miniature calendar.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

in response to the interaction, creating a meeting proposal based on the dragged mailbox item and the day in the miniature calendar to which it is dragged.

6. A method for enhanced calendaring functionality in a collaboration suite application, the collaboration suite application comprising a plurality of elements, including a calendaring element, the method comprising:

recognizing date related alphanumeric characters in a mailbox item as a specific day in the calendaring element; and

allowing a user to interact with the recognized alphanumeric characters.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of recognizing date related alphanumeric characters comprises:

identifying an attribute of the mailbox item; and

recognizing the specific day based on the attribute.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the mailbox item is an email, and the attribute is the date on which the email was sent.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the interaction comprises hovering over the recognized alphanumeric characters.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the hovering results in a tool-tip displaying entries in the calendaring element for the specific day.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the interaction comprises right-clicking on the recognized alphanumeric characters.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the right-clicking results in a context menu allowing a user to add new appointment entries in the calendaring element for the specific day.

13. A method for enhanced calendaring functionality in a collaboration suite application, the method comprising:

displaying a meeting entry in a calendar, wherein the appearance of the meeting entry is dependent on the status of the meeting.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the status is one of a group consisting of accepted, tentatively accepted, and rejected.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

allowing a user to interact with the meeting entry, wherein the interaction can result in changing the status of the meeting.

16. A method for enhanced calendaring functionality in a collaboration suite application, the method comprising:

providing a view of multiple calendars simultaneously, each of the multiple calendars being divided into a plurality of timeslots and each of the multiple calendars having a name;

providing a visual indicator to provide an indication of the cumulative availability of each of the plurality of timeslots across the multiple calendars, wherein the visual indicator is also divided into the plurality of timeslots, and wherein the visual indicator does not overlap with any of the multiple calendars.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the multiple calendars belong to different users.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving interaction with one of the plurality of time slots in the visual indicator; and

displaying in a tool-tip the names of the ones of the multiple calendars which are not available for the one of the plurality of time slots.