Method and Apparatus to Transmit a Calendar Event in Target Calendaring System Format

• US 20130212597A1
• Filed: 03/28/2013
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhogal, Kulvir Singh, Boss, Gregory Jensen, Hamilton, Rick Allen II, Polozoff, Alexandre
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,842 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

An agent may receive an event from a source calendaring system, wherein the event specifies a person, perhaps including a uniform resource locator, having disparate calendaring system. The disparate calendaring system may use a native event format for coordinating events. The agent may lookup a template to convert the event to a native event. The agent may transmit a message with attributes such as a unique identifier to the disparate calendaring system. If the disparate calendaring system acknowledges the event with a success, the agent may log the occurrence of a success. Agent may transmit additional messages having native events to additional disparate systems.

Claims

1. A method for propagating an event from a schedule of a source calendaring system to a schedule of a target calendaring system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving from the source calendaring system a message describing the event, the message formatted according to the source calendaring system;

responsive to receiving the event message, determining from attributes of the event contained in the event message a top level domain and a second level domain;

identifying the top level domain and the second level domain in a lookup table relating uniform resource locator addresses to target templates;

identifying a target template for the target calendaring system from the lookup table in response to identifying the top level domain and the second level domain, the target template mapping the set of attributes of the event from a format of the source calendaring system into a format of the target calendaring system;

reformatting, with the target template of the target calendaring system, the event message to store the set of attributes of the event into the format of the target calendaring system; and

sending the reformatted event message to the target calendaring system for scheduling.

2. The computer implemented method of claim one further comprising:

responsive to reformatting the event message, creating a unique identifier for the reformatted event message;

recording the unique identifier and an associated successful field into a log;

appending the unique identifier to the reformatted event message;

wherein the step of sending the reformatted event message the target calendar system is in response to appending the unique identifier to the reformatted event message.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the unique identifier is an incremented serial number stored in a limited string space of the reformatted event message.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 2 further comprising:

receiving a response from the target calendaring system; and

responsive to identifying a set success bit within the response, toggling the success field to indicate acceptance of the reformatted event message by the target calendaring system;

5. The computer implemented method of claim 2 further comprising:

responsive to identifying the target template for the target calendaring system, identifying a set of filter criteria corresponding to the target calendaring system;

wherein the steps of reformatting the event message and sending the reformatted event message are performed in response to a determination that the set of filter criteria is met.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the set of filter criteria comprises a filter criterion restricting sending events to the target calendaring system when the target calendaring system is associated with a user'"'"'s work, wherein the filter criterion disallows events occurring on specified dates.

7. A computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code stored thereon for propagating an event from a source calendaring system to a target calendaring system comprising:

computer usable program code configured to receive from the source calendaring system a message describing the event, the message formatted according to the source calendaring system;

computer usable program code, responsive to receiving the event message, configured to determine a top level domain and a second level domain;

computer usable program code configured to identify the top level domain and the second level domain in a lookup table relating uniform resource locator addresses to target templates;

computer usable program code configured to identify a target template for the target calendaring system from the lookup table in response to identifying the top level domain and the second level domain, the target template mapping the set of attributes of the event from a format of the source calendaring system into a format of the target calendaring system;

computer usable program code configured to reformat, with the target template of the target calendaring system, the event message to store the set of attributes of the event into the format of the target calendaring system; and

computer usable program code configured to send the reformatted event message to the target calendaring system for scheduling.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7 further comprising:

computer usable program code, responsive to reformatting the event message, configured to create a unique identifier for the reformatted event message;

computer usable program code configured to record the unique identifier and an associated successful field into a log;

computer usable program code configured to append the unique identifier to the reformatted event message;

wherein the computer usable program code configured to send the reformatted event message the target calendar system is in response to appending the unique identifier to the reformatted event message.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the unique identifier is an incremented serial number stored in a limited string space of the reformatted event message.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to receive a response from the target calendaring system; and

computer usable program code, responsive to identifying a set success bit within the response, configured to toggle the success field to indicate acceptance of the reformatted event message by the target calendaring system.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8 further comprising:

computer usable program code, responsive to identifying the target template for the target calendaring system, configured to identify a set of filter criteria corresponding to the target calendaring system;

wherein the computer usable program code configured to format the event message and sending the reformatted event message are performed in response to a determination that the set of filter criteria is met.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the set of filter criteria comprises a filter criterion restricting sending events to the target calendaring system when the target calendaring system is associated with a user'"'"'s work, wherein the filter criterion disallows events occurring on specified dates.

13. A computer comprising:

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein computer usable program code is located in the storage device;

a communication unit connected to the bus;

a processing unit connected to the bus, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code;

to receive from the source calendaring system a message describing the event, the message formatted according to the source calendaring system;

to receiving the event message, configured to determine a top level domain and a second level domain;

to identify the top level domain and the second level domain in a lookup table relating uniform resource locator addresses to target templates;

to identify a target template for the target calendaring system from the lookup table in response to identifying the top level domain and the second level domain, the target template mapping the set of attributes of the event from a format of the source calendaring system into a format of the target calendaring system;

to reformat, with the target template of the target calendaring system, the event message to store the set of attributes of the event into the format of the target calendaring system; and

to send the reformatted event message to the target calendaring system for scheduling.

14. The computer of claim 13 wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code:

responsive to reformatting the event message, to create a unique identifier for the reformatted event message;

to record the unique identifier and an associated successful field into a log;

to append the unique identifier to the reformatted event message;

wherein the processing unit executing the computer usable program code to send the reformatted event message the target calendar system is in response to appending the unique identifier to the reformatted event message.

15. The computer of claim 14, wherein the unique identifier is an incremented serial number stored in a limited string space of the reformatted event message.

16. The computer of claim 14 wherein the processing unit further executes the computer usable program code:

to receive a response from the target calendaring system; and

responsive to identifying a set success bit within the response, to toggle the success field to indicate acceptance of the reformatted event message by the target calendaring system.

17. The computer of claim 14 wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code:

responsive to identifying the target template for the target calendaring system, to identify a set of filter criteria corresponding to the target calendaring system;

wherein the processing unit executing the computer usable program code to format the event message and sending the reformatted event message are performed in response to a determination that the set of filter criteria is met.

18. The computer of claim 17, wherein the set of filter criteria comprises a filter criterion restricting sending events to the target calendaring system when the target calendaring system is associated with a user'"'"'s work, wherein the filter criterion disallows events occurring on specified dates.