Instant Message User Management

• US 20150026284A1
• Filed: 10/10/2014
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Karstens, Christoper K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,876,740 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for improving management of user information in instant messaging systems. Expiration criteria are defined, whereby one or more users or user groups may be considered as having “expired” from consideration by instant messaging functions such as presence determination. In particular, instant messaging activity is preferably used as an expiration criterion. Absence of inbound or outbound messages for a specified amount of time (or since a particular date/time) can therefore be used as a trigger for treating a user or group of users as expired. As a result, efficiency of an instant messaging system is improved by omitting the expired users and groups from subsequent management operations. Optionally, an expired user or group may be revived upon occurrence of certain events (such as a newly-arriving instant message from, or a change in presence status of, the user or group).

Claims

1. A system for managing user information in an instant messaging (“

IM”

) system, comprising;

a computer comprising a processor; and

instructions which are executable, using the processor, to perform functions comprising;

determining, for an IM client that is operably connected to the IM system, whether any of a plurality of users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired due to absence of communication with the IM client; and

performing a presence detection function of the IM system to determine current presence status on behalf of the IM client, comprising;

for each one of the plurality of users for whom the determining determines that the user is to be treated as expired, omitting this user as a remembered user when the presence detection function determines the current presence status, but not deleting this user from the plurality of users remembered for the IM client; and

including all others of the plurality of users as remembered users when the presence detection function determines the current presence status.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the determining uses expiration criteria selected by a user of the IM client to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the determining compares a first date when an instant message last arrived from each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client to a second date selected by a user of the IM client to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the determining comprises at least one of:

determining whether an instant message last arrived from each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client more than a specified length of time before a current time to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired; and

determining whether an instant message was last sent by a user of the IM client user to each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client more than a specified length of time before a current time to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the determining compares a first date when an instant message was last sent by a user of the IM client to each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client to a second date selected by the IM client user to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the determining is performed by analyzing expiration information for each presently-unexpired one of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client upon occurrence of a configured interval.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the determining and omitting are also performed for user groups remembered for the IM client.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

receiving an inbound message from a particular one of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client who is being treated as expired, and in response, automatically treating the particular user as no longer expired, responsive to the receiving; and

sending an outbound message from the IM client to a particular one of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client who is being treated as expired, and in response, automatically treating the particular user as no longer expired, responsive to the sending.

9. A system for managing user information in an instant messaging (“

IM”

) system, comprising;

a computer comprising a processor; and

instructions which are executable, using the processor, to perform functions comprising;

evaluating, for an IM client that is operably connected to the IM system, which of a plurality of users remembered for the IM client are to be treated as expired but not deleted from the plurality of remembered users;

performing an IM presence detection function of the IM system to determine current presence status on behalf of the IM client, further comprising;

omitting each of the remembered users that are to be treated as expired as a remembered user when the presence detection function determines the current presence status, but not deleting the each of the remembers users that are to be treated as expired from the plurality of remembered users; and

including all others of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client as remembered users when the presence detection function determines the current presence status; and

providing, for the IM client, a visual indication for each of the plurality of remembered users, where each one of the plurality of remembered users that are to be treated as expired but not deleted from the plurality of remembered users is visually indicated differently from the all other ones of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the different visual representation comprises moving names of the remembered users who are to be treated as expired to a folder structure displayed in one portion of a graphical user interface of the IM client while displaying names of the all other ones of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client in a different portion of the graphical user interface.

11. A computer program product for managing user information in an instant messaging (“

IM”

) system, comprising;

a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code configured for;

determining, for an IM client that is operably connected to the IM system, whether any of a plurality of users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired due to absence of communication with the IM client; and

performing a presence detection function of the IM system to determine current presence status on behalf of the IM client, comprising;

for each one of the plurality of users for whom the determining determines that the user is to be treated as expired, omitting this user as a remembered user when the presence detection function determines the current presence status, but not deleting this user from the plurality of users remembered for the IM client; and

including all others of the plurality of users as remembered users when the presence detection function determines the current presence status.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the determining uses expiration criteria selected by a user of the IM client to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

13. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the determining compares a first date when an instant message last arrived from each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client to a second date selected by a user of the IM client to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

14. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the determining comprises determining whether an instant message last arrived from each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client more than a specified length of time before a current time to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

15. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the determining compares a first date when an instant message was last sent by a user of the IM client to each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client to a second date selected by the IM client user to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

16. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the determining comprises determining whether an instant message was last sent by a user of the IM client user to each particular one of the users remembered for the IM client more than a specified length of time before a current time to determine whether any of the users remembered for the IM client should be treated as expired.

17. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the determining is performed by analyzing expiration information for each presently-unexpired one of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client upon occurrence of a configured interval.

18. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the determining and omitting are also performed for user groups remembered for the IM client.

19. The computer program product according to claim 11, further comprising:

receiving an inbound message from a particular one of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client who is being treated as expired; and

automatically treating the particular user as no longer expired, responsive to the receiving.

20. The computer program product according to claim 11, further comprising:

sending an outbound message from the IM client to a particular one of the plurality of users remembered for the IM client who is being treated as expired; and

automatically treating the particular user as no longer expired, responsive to the sending.