LARGE DATA MANAGEMENT IN COMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS THROUGH MULTIPLE MAILBOXES

• US 20160269338A1
• Filed: 06/11/2015
• Published: 09/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Dheepak, Tung, Le-Wu, Yang, Song, Kohli, Gagandeep, Janardhan, Kamal, Ramaswamy, Sanjay, Zbogar-Smith, Julian, Srinivasan, Sowmy
• Granted Patent: US 10,530,724 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

Technologies are described to increase a data limit for a user of a communication application by introducing additional archive mailboxes as the original archive fills up or subsequently added archive mailboxes fill up. Thus, a user'"'"'s data limit may be effectively removed through the use of N additional archive mailboxes. The additional mailboxes may be integrated into the architecture of the communication application such that their use is transparent to the user and/or an administrator of the communication application or associated service. In other examples, additional mailboxes may be used to add to the capacity of the primary mailbox (cached) as well.

Claims

1. A method executed on a computing device to provide large data management in a communication application through multiple mailboxes, the method comprising:

detecting a predefined size threshold of a mailbox associated with a user being reached;

creating one or more additional archive mailboxes for the user; and

storing communication application related data in the one or more additional archive mailboxes, wherein data in the mailbox and in the one or more additional archive mailboxes are available for one or more functionalities of the communication application in a transparent manner to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mailbox is one of a primary mailbox and a first archive mailbox, and the method further comprises:

creating the one or more additional archive mailboxes in chained manner connected to one of the primary mailbox and the first archive mailbox.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

enabling the user to see a first node representing the primary mailbox and a second node representing the first archive mailbox and the one or more additional archive mailboxes.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing the primary mailbox, the first archive mailbox, and the one or more additional archive mailboxes in one or more data stores, wherein the data stores include one of local data stores and online data stores.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

managing storage of the primary mailbox, the first archive mailbox, and the one or more additional archive mailboxes through one or more servers.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

for communication application related data not stored in the primary mailbox or the first archive mailbox, creating one or more pointers to respective additional archive mailboxes in the primary mailbox or the first archive mailbox.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

upon detecting one of the primary mailbox, the first archive mailbox, and the one or more additional archive mailboxes reach a storage threshold, moving data to one or more other additional archive mailboxes through data partitioning.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data partitioning includes chaining of partitions created dynamically based on one or more of a mailbox size, an item count, and an ingestion size.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the storage threshold is defined at a tenant level within a communication service.

12. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the data management application is further configured to:

update the folder hierarchy stored in the archive content mailboxes through a periodic synchronization.

10. A computing device to provide large data management in a communication service through multiple mailboxes, the computing device comprising:

a memory configured to store instruction associated with the communication service; and

one or more processors configured to execute one or more applications associated with the communication service in conjunction with the instructions stored in the memory, wherein the one or more applications include;

a communication application configured to facilitate exchange of communication in a plurality of modes between users; and

a data management application configured to manage communication application related data through mailboxes associated with the users and user groups, wherein the data management application is further configured to;

detect a predefined size threshold of an archive mailbox associated with a user being reached;

create one or more additional archive mailboxes for the user; and

store the communication application related data in the one or more additional archive mailboxes, wherein data in the archive mailbox and in the one or more additional archive mailboxes are available for one or more functionalities of the communication application in a transparent manner to the user.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the data management application is further configured to:

store a folder hierarchy associated with the user in the archive mailbox and in one or more additional archive mailboxes designated as archive content mailboxes.

13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the data management application is further configured to:

partition data in one or more of the archive mailbox and the one or more additional archive mailboxes upon detecting the archive mailbox or the one or more additional archive mailboxes reach a storage threshold by chaining of partitions created dynamically based on one or more of a mailbox size, an item count, and an ingestion size.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the data management application is further configured to:

enable automatic size balancing across the one or more additional archive mailboxes and searches across multiple partitions.

15. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the data management application is further configured to:

enable folder based and metadata based views across multiple partitions.

16. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the data management application is further configured to:

provide partition information to one or more of an electronic discovery application, a records management application, and a compliance application.

17. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the plurality of modes includes one or more of an email exchange, a messaging exchange, an online conference, an audio communication, a video communication, a data sharing session, an application sharing session, and a desktop sharing session.

18. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon to provide large data management in a communication service through multiple mailboxes, the instructions comprising:

detecting a predefined size threshold of an archive mailbox associated with a user being reached;

creating one or more additional archive mailboxes for the user in a chained manner connected to the archive mailbox, wherein a folder hierarchy associated with the user is stored in the archive mailbox and in one or more additional archive mailboxes designated as archive content mailboxes; and

storing communication application related data in the one or more additional archive mailboxes, wherein data in the archive mailbox and in the one or more additional archive mailboxes are available for one or more functionalities of the communication application in a transparent manner to the user.

19. The computer-readable memory device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise:

if the user selects “

all mailboxes”

when switching between an item view and a conversation view, applying view settings to all folders independent of a folder location; and

if the user selects “

this folder”

, applying the view settings to a selected folder.

20. The computer-readable memory device of claim 18, wherein the communication application related data includes one or more of emails, calendar items, attachments, tasks, contact cards, online conference recordings, audio communication recordings, video communication recordings, and text messages.