ELIMINATING DUPLICATE AND INVALID CALENDAR ITEMS FROM END USER CALENDARS USING A UNIQUE ENTRY IDENTIFIER (UEID)

• US 20090327919A1
• Filed: 06/25/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: GRANT, SHAYNE M., KRISSELL, DANIEL L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,041,725 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

Providing a unique entry identifier, which is an identifier specific to a calendar entry. The calendar entry can be an entry associated with a set of different electronic calendars, each associated with a specific user. Data for each user specific calendar can be stored in a structured data store. A set of records for each user specific calendar can be maintained and utilized independent of other sets of records associated with other ones of the users. The unique entry identifier can be an identifier unique for the calendar entry within the associated set of records, and wherein the same unique entry identifier is utilized for the calendar entry within each of the different sets of records as a unique identifier for the calendar entry. For example, when calendar updates are conveyed via email among a set of users, shared meetings can always be associated with a unique entry identifier used by all calendaring systems.

Claims

1. A method for updating structured calendar data comprising:

receiving a message containing data for a shared calendar entry, wherein a shared calendar entry is one associated with a plurality of different user specific electronic calendars;

receiving an option to accept the data in the message;

accepting the data by selecting the option;

determining a unique entry identifier for the shared calendar entry;

querying a stored set of structured calendar data using the unique entry identifier;

when no entry is found, initializing at least one programmatic action to create a new calendar entry having the unique entry identifier that is to be stored as part of the structured calendar data; and

when an entry is found, initializing at least one programmatic action to process the data for the shared calendar entry in a manner that ensure that only one calendar entry of the stored set of structured calendar data is associated with the unique entry identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of different calendaring systems, each using its own stored set of structured calendar data each include a record for the shared calendar entry, and wherein each record for the shared calendar entry is associated with the same unique entry identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a user interface within an messaging application having an option to accept or deny the data relating to the shared calendar entry; and

performing processing actions to update the stored set of structured calendar data within a local data store responsive to a user selection of the option indicating acceptance of the data relating to the shared calendar entry.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying semantic data of the shared calendar entry; and

executing an algorithm driven by the semantic data to automatically generate the unique entry identifier, wherein each execution of the algorithm given the same semantic data produces the same unique entry identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is an email message, and wherein the data comprises the unique entry identifier, which is a value that uniquely identifies as structured record for the shared entry as stored in a calendaring database of a system that sent the message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a message that contains data relating to the shared calendar entry;

within the message, uniquely identifying the shared calendar entry using the unique entry identifier; and

conveying the message over a network that is directed towards at least one user associated with the shared calendar entry.

7. A method for handling calendar entries comprising;

providing a unique entry identifier, which is an identifier specific to a calendar entry, said calendar entry being an entry associated with a plurality of different electronic calendars, each associated with a specific user, wherein data for each user specific calendar is stored in a structured data store, wherein a set of records for each user specific calendar as stored within each of the structured data stores are maintained and utilized independent of other sets of records associated with other ones of the users, wherein the unique entry identifier is an identifier unique for the calendar entry within the associated set of records, and wherein the same unique entry identifier is utilized for the calendar entry within each of the different sets of records as a unique identifier for the calendar entry.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

exchanging a message over a network that is directed to one of the users, wherein the message comprises data related to the calendar entry;

processing the data relating to the calendar entry to update a record within a local data store, which is one of the structured data stores, wherein other ones of the structured data stores are remotely located, local data stores comprising data for a user specific calendar of a different user; and

during the processing, identifying the calendar entry of the structured data store based upon the unique entry identifier.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the data related to the calendar entry comprises the unique entry identifier, which is used to uniquely identity the calendar entry.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the message is an email message, said method further comprising:

presenting a user interface within an email application having an option to accept or deny the data relating to the calendar entry; and

performing the processing to update the record within the local data store responsive to a user selection of the option indicating acceptance of the data relating to the calendar entry.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

detecting a user action to add a new calendar entry to the structured data store;

determining a unique entry identifier value of the new calendar entry;

querying the structured data store based upon the unique entry identifier;

when the querying fails to detect a record having the unique entry identifier, storing a record within the structured data store for the new calendar entry which is associated with the unique entry identifier; and

when the querying detects a record having the unique entry identifier, performing a programmatic action to prevent more than one record of the structured data store from being associated with the unique entry identifier.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

identifying semantic data of the calendar entry; and

executing an algorithm driven by the semantic data to automatically generate the unique entry identifier, wherein each execution of the algorithm given the same semantic data produces the same unique entry identifier.

13. A calendaring system comprising:

a data store that is a storage medium configured to store structured data relating to user specific calendars, said structured data comprising a plurality of records for calendar entries, wherein each calendar entry comprises an entry identifier that is unique among the plurality of record for calendar entries;

a calendaring application configured to utilize the structured data relating to the user specific calendars to perform programmatic actions related to calendaring; and

a unique entity identifier engine configured to generate unique entity identifiers for shared calendar entries, wherein a shared calendar entry is a calendar entry associated with a plurality of different electronic calendar maintained and utilized by a plurality of functionally independent calendaring applications, wherein each record for a calendar entry associated with a shared calendar entry comprises a value for a unique entry identifier.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a messaging application configured to send, receive, and process a plurality of standardized messages over a network, wherein at least a portion of the standardized messages comprises calendar data for shared calendar entries, wherein the messaging application is configured to selectively extract the calendar data and use it to update the structured data of the data store.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the messaging application is an email application, and wherein the standardized messages are email messages.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the calendaring application is a client-side application, wherein the data store is a local data store accessible by the client-side application, wherein the calendaring application is configured to operate in a standalone mode when a computing device upon which the calendaring application executes is detached from the network.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the messaging application and the calendaring application are configured to be able to programmatically operate independent of the other.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a user interface of the messaging application configured to provide a user to add new calendar entries to the user specific calendar based upon calendaring data in a received message, to delete stored calendar entries to the user specific calendar based upon calendaring data in a received message, and to modify data of stored calendar entries based upon calendaring data in a received message, wherein each of the user interface options relating to calendar entries is processed using a unique entry identifier when processing relates to shared calendar entries

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the unique entry identifier engine is configured to generate unique entity identifiers based at least in part upon semantic content of a calendar entry for which the unique entry identifier is associated, wherein the unique entry identifier engine is configured to always generate a same unique entry identifier given a same calendar entry.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the data store is configured to store the structured data in conformance with a relational database, wherein a plurality of independent relational databases exist, one for each of the user specific calendars, wherein each of the independent relational databases utilize the same unique entity identifier in records associated with a shared calendar entry.